Hanging with Bells!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Review: The Siren by Tiffany Reisz

The Siren
Book 1 in the Original Sinners series
Author: Tiffany Reisz
Publisher: Harlequin
Author's website: Link

In the world of kink authors, she's the top.

Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different—more serious, more personal—and she's sure it'll be her breakout book...if it ever sees the light of day.

Zachary Easton holds Nora's fate in his well-manicured hands. The demanding British editor agrees to handle the book on one condition: he wants complete control. Nora must rewrite the entire novel to his exacting standards—in six weeks—or it's no deal.

Nora's grueling writing sessions with Zach are draining…and shockingly arousing. And a dangerous former lover has her wondering which is more torturous—staying away from him...or returning to his bed?

Nora thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain, nothing is ever that simple.

Once in a while I'll read something that is completely different from what I'm used to reading and takes me out of my comfort zone...and that is good thing. Every now and then I need to read something that gives me a challenge. You see, reading the same type of books over and over can get very boring. That is exactly what I was dealing with before I started The Siren. I've read some books in the past that contained BDSM in them, but The Siren has so much more. A storyline that will having your jaw dropping while reading it. Unforgettable characters that are multidimensional and unforgettable. Excellent writing that manages to keep the readers entertained and trying to guess what will happen next.

At the heart of the story is Nora Sutherlin who has written erotica books in the past. She is currently writing a new erotic book with a new publishing company and Zachary Easton has been asked to be her editor. Zach doesn't want to accept this job because he feels as if erotica books have no substance. After meeting Nora and realizing that she's willing to do whatever he says to make this book happen, he agrees to edit it. Together they are able to turn her book into something that makes them both proud. But there are challenges along the way. They are both attracted to one another and agree that nothing can happen while they are working on the book. This doesn't stop them from flirting with one another and the attraction grows as they get to know one another better. It's at this time that the reader gets to know the characters better as well. Nora had something to prove to herself; that she could challenge herself and finish this book. We get to see so many different facets to her character while she travels on this journey to get to the finish line. She's a teacher, a nurturer, and a legend in her own right. Zach discovers this about her during different parts of the book and she opens his eyes to a whole new world. Secrets are revealed throughout the book that allows the characters to push each other to discover certain truths about themselves. This is when Tiffany Reisz's writing truly shines as the characters have to look inside themselves and think about their past decisions and mistakes. Nora has quite the past that has shaped her into the woman that she has become. I felt that she had an inner strength that gave her the ability to be comfortable with who she is. But at the same time, there were times when I just wished that I could grab her from the book and hold her so tight. She's been through so much and while we learn about her past and relationships with others, I feel that there is so much to learn about her. Zach continues to revisit his past and while he's made some steps in the hope of a happier future, it takes an eye opening experience from Nora to help him achieve that. Zach is a different man by the end of the book because of the different things he experienced throughout the book. There is more to his journey and I can't wait to read more about him.

I'm giving The Siren a rating of:

The Siren is one of the most thought provoking and shockingly intense books that I have read. I felt very overwhelmed at the end of the book as the story and characters remained fresh in my mind. There were a few scenes that made were uncomfortable to me, but I felt that they added so much to the story and gave the me a glimpse into the characters a little more. I had so many questions when I finished the book, with the main one being Why? Why were the characters the way that they were. While the main focus of the book is on the main characters, the secondary characters were just as important as they so much a part of Nora and Zach's life. One of those secondary characters is Soren who was a huge part of Nora's past. He is extremely intense and absolutely terrified me. Soren has an air of mystery about him and left me wanting to know more about the man that he is. His character is just another example of the great writing by the author. I thought I would loathe this man and after finishing the book he stayed on my mind. The Siren truly left me questioning so many things and I was so happy to learn that it's the 1st book in a 4 part series. With The Siren being so intense, I can only imagine how the other books in the series will be. This book will definitely make it on my end of the year post for favorite books of the year for sure. My review only scratches the surface on how great it really was and I would highly recommend it to anyone that's looking for a book that will truly consume you while you are reading it.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Ruthie Knox

Bad Girls Make Great Heroines

Thanks for having me to visit, Bells! I’m excited to be talking about flawed heroines today, because hoo boy, do I ever have a flawed heroine for you.

In my first book, I wrote a flawed hero. Tom, the hero of Ride with Me, had a Past with a capital P, and he was grouchy and moody and an all-around pain in the butt sometimes. But readers loved him — and I love him — because we give our romance heroes lots of latitude to be wounded and difficult.

Heroines, on the other hand? Not so much. Which is why it’s a bit scary to me to have written Cath Talarico, the flawdiest of flawed heroines. But I love her so, and I hope readers will, too.

Here, let’s meet her. This is Cath at a train station, negotiating with a woman she knows to get an artifact she wants for the museum exhibit she’s helping to curate...

“You really want that jacket,” Amanda said. “It’s important to you.”

Cath stared at City’s broad shoulders beneath his suit coat and shrugged, feigning a nonchalance she didn’t feel.

Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Nothing ever is.

“We’re friends, right?” Amanda asked, throwing an arm across the back of the bench.

They weren’t friends. They’d had a handful of mutual acquaintances a few years ago. These days, Cath pantomimed familiarity when they ran into each other around Greenwich so that she could legitimately harass Amanda for the straitjacket.

Cath didn’t have any friends. She had a roommate who didn’t like her, a socially awkward boss who did, and an empty life that revolved around her job.

“Sure,” she said, because it was what she was supposed to say.

“And you need a favor.”

Just smile and nod, Talarico.

She tamped down her temper, refrained from pointing out that she’d just won her favor fair and square, and did as her good sense instructed.

“We’ll do a trade.” Amanda grinned, a smile that announced, This is the best idea anyone’s ever had. “Eric and I are going to a concert tonight at a club with his cousin. He’s in town from Newcastle for the weekend. We could really use a fourth.”

A garbled announcement of the train’s approach came over the loudspeaker, and Cath kept her expression neutral as she stood and shouldered her bag.

Christ on a crutch. She’d walked into a blind date.

For any normal woman, this wouldn’t be a problem. No one wanted to be set up with some random warm body from Newcastle, of course, but spending an evening being hit on, ignored, or bored out of her skull ought to have been a fair exchange for getting her way.

For Cath, though, Amanda’s proposal was worse than a problem. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

She hadn’t been on a date in two years. No concerts, no bars, no men. These were the rules that set New Cath apart from her irresponsible predecessor—the restrictions that kept her from making the kind of mistakes that had necessitated the creation of New Cath in the first place.

Cath didn’t want to break the rules. She needed the rules.

But she needed that straitjacket more. It would be a coup for the exhibit, which meant it would win Judith’s gratitude, and Judith’s gratitude was Cath’s ticket into a permanent curatorial position.

She had to do it.

“Sounds like fun,” she said, her cheerful tone the first of many frauds the evening would no doubt entail.

Surely she could spend one night with a guy in a club without doing anything she’d regret.

Can she, in fact, spend one night with a guy in a club without doing anything she’ll regret? Uh, no. She can’t, and she doesn’t. But what happens next is she gets rescued by a really great guy, whose name she doesn’t know so she calls him City (long story), and whom she describes thusly:

Of all the guys in London, she’d gone home with City.

Cath relaxed, relieved to know whose bed she’d slept in—and to confirm she’d only been sleeping. Even drunk, lonely, and out of her head, she wouldn’t have thrown herself at City. He wasn’t her type at all. When she fell, it was for the bad apples, the unapologetic scoundrels with funny stories, wiry bodies, and battered guitar cases. Not for guys like City. Not for men who were good.

And she’d been watching City long enough to know he was definitely good. He was the sort who helped mothers carry their strollers down the station steps and gave up his seat on the train to anyone female, old, or less fit than himself.

Come to think of it, he didn’t sit much.

*happy sigh*

Of course, Cath’s self-assessment needs a little work, and so does her assessment of City. She’s not as broken as she thinks she is, nor is he as perfect as she assumes. And what follows, as they court and fall in love and have sex (but not remotely in that order), is that a flawed woman slowly, painfully learns to trust again, and in the process she figures out how to reevaluate herself and to live with the mistakes she’s made with her life.

I wonder how I would feel about Cath if I hadn’t written her. Since I did, I love her, and I believe in her — but I’m as guilty as the next romance reader of judging heroines, hating heroines, getting fed up with heroines . . . and yet I don’t want them to be bland, either. I have very high expectations for them — expectations they often don’t meet — whereas I’ll let heroes get away with just about anything short of murder.

Is this like the whole Man Cold thing, do you think? We want women to deal with illness and injury and all the horrors life throws at us with cheerful competence, whereas men are allowed to turn into sniveling, whiny wreckage, and we still think they’re adorable? I’d love to hear what you guys think. Discuss among yourselves! ;-)

(Oh, and here’s the Man Cold movie, if you haven’t seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ. Definitely worth a watching or seven!)

About Last Night, coming from Loveswept (Random House), June 11, 2012!

Sure, opposites attract, but in this sexy, smart eBook original romance from Ruthie Knox, they positively combust! When a buttoned-up banker falls for a bad girl, “about last night” is just the beginning.

Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.

Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine — even her name turns him on — with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine, sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.

When blue blood mixes with bad blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last a lifetime?

Preorder/order links -- only $2.99, releases June 11

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

iBooks

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

New Releases: Week of 5/28/12

Books

PNR/UF

Contemporary Romance/Erotic Romance

Historical Romance

Music

Music DVDs

My buddy Minion is going to be so happy that this out!

DVDs

Monday, May 28, 2012

Winner of Lucky In Love

The winner of Lucky In Love by Jill Shalvis is:

Joanne

Congrats! You should receive an email from me shortly.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Review & Giveaway: Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Rapture
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Release date: 5/22/12
Author's website: Link

Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell.

Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the rapture of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover.

When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he be forced to share Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

Gabriel's Rapture begins right where the previous book ended. Professor Emerson and Julia are vacationing in Italy while he gives a lecture on what he knows best, Dante. If you've read the previous book Gabriel's Inferno, then you know how important Dante is to the storyline as well as the characters. There are lots of beautiful written scenes involving the intimacies between Gabriel and Julia. His main goal is to worship her with love and try his best to move on from what has happened in the past. But the past doesn't seem to want to let him go and their new relationship has to face many challenges. They also have to deal with the issue of how their relationship came to be. When word gets out about them being together to the administration of the university things become extremely tense. In their eyes Gabriel and Julia have broken the rules and everything about the future of their careers may be jeopardized. It doesn't seem as if it's going to end well for this couple that is so deeply in love. There's also some trust issues that they have to deal with as their relationship becomes a more serious one. You just don't know if these two are going to be together by the end of the book and that mystery adds to this already well written story.

Gabriel and Julia's relationship changes throughout the book as the discover each others more intimately and as they discover more about one another. Gabriel's character really blew me away in this book as his love for Julia is truly shown in some many different ways. He would do anything for his Beatrice, even if it meant that he had to sacrifice himself. He is so selfless and giving to so many people as we get to see his character mature. Julia also matures as she discovers her inner strength during the difficult times. This newly found strength also allows others to see her in a new light. Despite all of the bad there was so much good. Lots of love scenes as these new lovers discover what makes each other tick. Gabriel is extremely generous as his pleasure comes from giving Julia pleasure. Gotta love a man whose man mission is to make his woman happy!

I'm giving Gabriel's Rapture a rating of:

Sylvain Reynard's writing is the star of this book! I found myself hanging onto his every word while I was reading. He has a way of making the reader feel as if they are a part of the book. While I enjoyed the book for the most part, I didn't enjoy some of the parts with the villians of the story. I'm not mentioning exactly what happened as I don't want to give anything away, but I wanted to see some better conclusion to it. These issues were too conveniently dealt with for me. They were some of the main causes of the issues between Gabriel and Julia. Other than that, I felt that the author did a great job of wrapping up the storyline and I was happy with how everything else was handled. If you read book one, you'll want to read Gabriel's Rapture so you can continue the journey with Gabriel and Julia to see exactly what happens. The journey of love is never and easy one and these 2 had a lot to deal with on that journey, but it was a worthy one.

Giveaway

Omnific Publishing is generously giving away a mug with the Gabriel's Rapture cover on it as well as a copy of the ebook! Open to US/CAN only. Please leave an email with a comment if you are interested in entering the giveaway. Giveaway ends 5/29/12 at 12PM EST. Good luck!