Release Day Blitz: Everything I Shouldn't, by Stacey Mosteller

Title: Everything I Shouldn’t (Nashville Nights #2)

Author: Stacey Mosteller

Genre: Contemporary/NA Romance

Release Date: June 26, 2014

     

Synopsis

It’s been eight days, sixteen hours and forty-seven minutes since life as I know it ended. I know, it sounds so melodramatic and teen-soap worthy, but it’s the truth. Eight days, sixteen hours and forty-seven minutes since David found out. Since he kicked Jeremy out, ended their friendship and told me I could never see him again. I didn’t plan on David getting suspicious, and I definitely didn’t plan on getting caught. My selfishness has cost Jeremy everything, my brother won’t even look at me, Lyric must hate me for practically blackmailing her to keep silent and my best friend is barely speaking to me. Now my life is full of secrets and lies. The people around me have been affected by the choices I’ve made and the lies I’ve told. But what will they do when they discover the biggest secret of them all? Jeremy is everything I shouldn't want, and the person I can't live without.    

Save Me From Myself (Nashville Nights #1)

 

Lyric Hayes spent the first 22 years of her life trying to be the perfect daughter and the perfect girlfriend. After a tragedy and her fiance’s betrayal, she's running. Starting over far away from the person she used to be. She's made herself a vow - no relationships. She's trying to heal, not complicate her life further. David Pearson has it all. Confidence, awesome friends, successful business. But, David's dealt with loss too. He knows better than anyone not to judge by what's on the surface. Drawn to Lyric despite her inability to trust, he'll do anything to own her heart. Will secrets and misunderstandings send Lyric running again? Or will David finally save her from herself?  

On SALE for 99¢ until 6/30

Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

   

Never Wanted More (Nashville Nights #0.5)

 

Originally released as part of the Southern Seduction Box Set

Peyton Williams is spoiled, entitled and a little too stuck up. The daughter of an influential Mayor and a socialite mother, she's trying to get through college and make her own path. She's perfectly happy being a loner until Spring semester when she gets not only a roommate, but a math tutor.

Wyatt Parker is the boy from the wrong side of town. Known as the son of the town tramp, he jumps at the scholarship to play basketball in Nashville where no one knows his roots. Spending this semester tutoring a friend's snobby roommate wasn't what he envisioned, but Peyton quickly gets under his skin. Peyton never wanted more until she met Wyatt, but is she willing to be what he needs?

Amazon US |Amazon UK | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

   

Second Chances – H.M. Ward & Stacey Mosteller

Release Date 7/14/14

Synopsis TBA

   

About Stacey

Stacey is a wife, reader, author and mother to 3 boys, ages 15, 14, and 8 – not necessarily in that order! After spending the first half of her life in a small town outside of Philadelphia, PA, her parents moved to another small town in North Carolina. She married her husband after dating a total of three months and knowing each other for six! People thought they were crazy, but 2014 marks their 10 year anniversary, so it obviously worked out! She loves to read and can usually be found curled up with her iPad when she’s supposed to be writing or creating playlists on Spotify!  

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Goodreads

   

Giveaway!

$50 Amazon Gift Card, 3 signed Save Me From Myself Paperbacks

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Rusty Nailed, by Alice Clayton

My review:

Rusty Nailed by Alice Clayton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rusty Nailed is the follow up book to Alice Clayton's Wallbanger. There's more Caroline, more Clive the cat, more of their friends (and their drama) and, of course, MORE SIMON WALLBANGER PARKER !!! Holy Moly! Once more, Simon is one hot apple dumpling! I wouldn't kick his hot crossed buns out of bed!

Filled with funny and sexy, this contemporary romance novel had me literally laughing out loud in public places on more than one occasion (I got some weird looks while on an 8 hour bus ride to New York City). It also had me in tears. Yes, Caroline and Simon made me cry on the bus! With tons of sexy jokes and loveable characters, the book starts basically where Wallbanger left off. It's like meeting up with long lost friends and having a party.

Caroline and Simon are a happy and sexy young professional couple, finding their way through the nail bitting and terrifying land of "the next logical step" in a relationship all while navigating the eerily calm and quiet seas of "familiarity". I was worried at first that this book was going to be a compilation of "reader eye candy", indulging us in Caroline/Simon sexy times, without a real story to back it up. I was happily reassured! Since the romance between the main characters is already established, this book focuses on what happens after the long awaited "I love you". Because, yes people, there is life after "I love you" and it's not always fireworks and sleepless nights of sweet lovin'.

I love character evolution in a story and this one has it in spades, even with the secondary characters (and Clive...yes, the cat goes through his own character evolution). Wonderfully written, I am now a devoted fan! I can't wait to grab more of Alice Clayton's books and will be on the lookout for her new releases!

I received a complimentary copy for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

In this sequel to Wallbanger, the second book in the Cocktail series, fan favorites Caroline and Simon negotiate the rollercoaster of their new relationship while house-sitting in San Francisco.

Playing house was never so much fun—or so confusing. With her boss on her honeymoon, Caroline’s working crazy long hours to keep the interior design company running—especially since she’s also the lead designer for the renovation of a gorgeous old hotel on Sausalito. So with her hotshot photographer boyfriend gallivanting all over the world for his job, she and Simon are heavy-duty into “absence makes the heart grow fonder” mode. Neither has any complaints about the great reunion sex, though! Then Simon decides he’s tired of so much travelling, and he’s suddenly home more. A lot more. And wanting Caroline home more, too. Though their friends’ romantic lives provide plenty of welcome distraction, eventually Caroline and Simon have to sort their relationship out. Neither wants “out of sight, out of mind,” but can they create their own happy mid-ground cliché?

USA TODAY bestselling author Alice Clayton delivers another delicious, frothy cocktail of a book, shaking up her characters, stirring in laugh-out-loud humor, and serving sizzling romance straight up!

Buying links:

http://pages.simonandschuster.com/alice-clayton/

Secrets and Lies 1, by H.M. Ward

Secrets & Lies by H.M. Ward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

LOVED IT! Funny, sassy, smartassy, quirky, light, smart, sexy, heartbreaking & intriguing. This sums up book 1 in H.M. Ward's newest series of serials (novellas), Secrets & Lies. This book sets up the tone, the characters and their backstories and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. I'm not sure how many books will be in the series but her serials (except for The Arrangement) tend to be 5 book series.

I am drawn to H.M. Ward's writting style. In just few simple sentences, using so little words, you feel like you KNOW her characters and she can make you love or hate them and she can have you all teary eyed one moment and laughing out loud the next. Which was the case for me while reading Secrets & Lies. I loved the vibrant feel to this story. Set in a college setting, this book has a much younger and lighter feel to it than some of her other darker and somber series. There are tons of amazing secondary characters and the dialog between them had me stitches. The use of modern day urban vernacular is hysterical, as always. I like that her main female characters are not stick figures. It's not only the hot skinny model type women that get the hot guy! Men love curves! :-)

A new adult contemporary romance with sexual content, it's supposedly a Ferro family series yet it is still unclear from volume 1 as to when and where this series fits in the timeline and lineage of the existing Ferro books. H.M. Ward is not one to give away information freely in her books. By the time you finish an H.M. Ward book, you usually end up having more questions than answers, as is the case with Secrets & Lies. Each Ferro family series can be read seperately as stand alone series and in any order you choose but if you are really looking for a reading order, see below.

View all my reviews

About the Ferro family books:
Secrets and Lies is a Ferro Family story about... well, that's the big secret isn't it? After volume 1, we still don't know which Ferro this is about. Other Ferro Family titles are The Arrangement (Sean Ferro), Damaged (Peter Ferro Granz), Stripped (Jonathan Ferro), The Proposition (Bryan Ferro) and The Wedding Contract (Nick Ferro). You don't have to read the other Ferro Family books in order to understand Secrets and Lies but if you like H.M. Ward's books, you may want to read all of them (see note on suggested reading order below). The Ferro Family books are contemporary "new adult" romance stories involving characters mostly in their 20's (college aged women & the men span the ages of 21 to 30).

But who is Trystan Scott and how does he fit in???

Although Trystan Scott is not a Ferro, he is linked into the storyline multiple times. The Secret Life of Trystan Scott is a 5 book series of novellas more in the Young Adult genre about an 18 year old Trystan on the verge of becoming a huge rock star. When his story intersects with the Ferro's, he is 21 years old and already a huge success. Broken Promises, a novel based on the older, 21 year old character is due to come out shortly.

H.M. Ward's serials:

Serials are shorter books (approximately 120 to 130 pages in print: 1/4 to 1/3 of a full-length novel) that come out more frequently than full-length novels (about 1 per month). They start off abruptly from where the previous book ended and end with a cliffhanger,  often leaving the reader begging for the next volume. Being shorter books, serials don't recap events that occur in previous volumes, so it's best to start off with book 1. I read at an average speed and each volume takes me about 1 to 2 hours to read.

Ferro Family reading order:
Each series is stand alone & can be read in any order. However, if you are planning on reading all of the Ferro Family books, I recommend reading them in the order they were published (see below) to avoid any spoilers from one series to the next since they cross-over at multiple points in the timeline and seem to follow the chronological order of the story so far.

Books in order of publication date: 

The Arrangement 1-4

Damaged 1

The Arrangement 5-7

Damaged 2

The Arrangement 8-9

Stripped

The Arrangement 10-11

The Proposition 1

The Arrangement 12

The Proposition 2

The Arrangement 13-14

The Proposition 3-4
The Wedding Contract
The Arrangement 15
Secrets and Lies 1

Alternate reading order:

If your afraid of confusing characters and plots by constantly switching from one series to the next, you may want to read the series in this order:

Damaged (finished)
The Arrangement (unfinished)
Stripped (unfinished)
The Proposition (unfinished)

As for The Wedding Contract (finished) & Secrets and Lies (unfinished), since they don't contain any spoilers (yet) from other series, they can be read whenever. Oh, and I'd add The Secret Life of Trystan Scott in there so that you can get a better of feel for Trystan's character before going into The Arrangement (he comes in around The Arrangement 10-ish) and Stripped.

Ferro Family Tree:

Screen adaptation update: 

H.M. Ward is working hard on bringing the Ferro Family story to the screen. It's looking like it may be a web series. Here are some current updates, as per H.M. Ward herself on her Facebook page:

"A sneak peek at what's to come. :-) Full details will be released in the next week or so. In the mean time I will tease you. Bwuahahah. And since you're going to ask AR 15 is next."  - May 16th 2014

"HUGE things are going on with the Ferro clan. A TV/ Web series is coming. Im helping with it to make sure the characters are awesome, & to give more insight into their lives. it'll b awesome!!! Plus more, that I can't say yet.!" - May 9th 2014

"There's a script being written about the FERRO guys right now. It's pretty good too. Im impressed and nothing impresses me. Damn good script writer. Can't wait for that." - May 2nd 2014

"Calling all actors and singers - here's your big chance! I'm looking for new faces. Make a demo reel, upload it to your site. youtube or whatever, and get ready. Casting calls will start soon for THE ARRANGEMENT. BE READY!" - April 2nd 2014


Ferro Videos from H.M. Ward's YouTube channel:

THE ARRANGEMENT:

THE WEDDING CONTRACT:

H.M. WARD TEASER:



SEXY NEW ADULT VIDEO TEASER BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER HM WARD:


THE ARRANGEMENT VOL 1 - READ BY THE AUTHOR!:


Songs in Ferro teaser videos:

If you want to purchase the songs featured in the Ferro teaser videos, here are the links:

Hungry, by Saints of Silence (on iTunes):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/hungry/id387236466?i=387236637

A Girl Like Me, by Dream Valley Music (on CD Baby):
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dreamvalleymusic#.U2UHdQAb21U.blogger

The Arrangement 15, by H.M. Ward

The Arrangement 15: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hot damn! THIS is why H.M. Ward is my favourite author! A SERIOUSLY FRACKENTABULOUS read!

On The Arrangement 15: The Ferro Family: I LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! I love that you can never tell where this story is going yet you know it will blow you away and have you reeling at the end.

It is beautifully written, in true H.M. Ward style and gave me goosebumps and shivers the whole way through. She has the knack for emotional description and character evolution.

Controversial for die-hard fans but I loved every aspect of it. It is heartfelt and it made me happy (I'm gonna get slapped for this one) to see certain unexpected turn of events. This is a complicated love story and sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes, you need a good friend to help you get through rough times and sometimes, an author just needs to do what she needs to do for character evolution's sake. I love where this story is going!!! She took a risk and it worked!

This book is undoubtebly an important tie-in to the eventual Broken Promises novel about Trystan Scott, due to come out sometime soon.

For newbie The Arrangement: The Ferro Family readers, this is a series like no other. It's a never ending series of short novels that have you running the gamut of possible emotions with tons of twists and turns. It's quite the experience and one of my all-time favourite series. Contemporary new adult romance with language and sexual content (although this one is not so heavy on the sexual content compared to other volumes)

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from the author for honest review.

View all my reviews

About the Ferro family books:
The Arrangement is a Ferro Family story about Sean Ferro. Other Ferro Family titles are Damaged (Peter Ferro Granz, Sean's brother), Stripped (Jonathan Ferro, Sean's other brother), The Proposition (Bryan Ferro, the cousin) and The Wedding Contract (Nick Ferro, the other cousin). You don't have to read the other Ferro Family books to get into The Arrangement but if you like H.M. Ward's books, you may want to read all of them (see note on suggested reading order below). The Ferro Family books are contemporary "new adult" romance stories involving characters mostly in their 20's (college aged women & slightly older men).

H.M. Ward's serials:

Serials are shorter books (approximately 130 pages in print: 1/4 to 1/3 of a full-length novel) that come out more frequently than full-length novels (about 1 per month). They start off abruptly from where the previous book ended and end with a cliffhanger,  often leaving the reader begging for the next volume. Being shorter books, serials don't recap events that occur in previous volumes, so it's best to start off with book 1. I read at an average speed and each volume takes me about 1 to 2 hours to read.

Ferro Family reading order:
Each series is stand alone & can be read in any order. If you are planning on reading all of the Ferro Family books, I recommend reading them in the order they were published (see below) to avoid any spoilers from one series to the next since they cross-over at multiple points in the timeline and seem to follow the chronological order of the story so far (although the jury is still out on when exactly the events of The Proposition occur in relation to the other series).

However, if your afraid of confusing characters and plots by constantly switching from one series to the next, you may want to read the series in this order: Damaged ---> The Arrangement ---> Stripped ---> The Proposition ---> The Wedding Contract.

Books in order of publication date: 

The Arrangement 1-4

Damaged 1

The Arrangement 5-7

Damaged 2

The Arrangement 8-9

Stripped

The Arrangement 10-11

The Proposition 1

The Arrangement 12

The Proposition 2

The Arrangement 13-14

The Proposition 3-4
The Wedding Contract
The Arrangement 15

Ferro Family Tree:

Screen adaptation update: 

H.M. Ward is working hard on bringing the Ferro Family story to the screen. It's looking like it may be a web series. Here are some current updates, as per H.M. Ward herself on her Facebook page:

"A sneak peek at what's to come. :-) Full details will be released in the next week or so. In the mean time I will tease you. Bwuahahah. And since you're going to ask AR 15 is next."  - May 16th 2014

"HUGE things are going on with the Ferro clan. A TV/ Web series is coming. Im helping with it to make sure the characters are awesome, & to give more insight into their lives. it'll b awesome!!! Plus more, that I can't say yet.!" - May 9th 2014

"There's a script being written about the FERRO guys right now. It's pretty good too. Im impressed and nothing impresses me. Damn good script writer. Can't wait for that." - May 2nd 2014

"Calling all actors and singers - here's your big chance! I'm looking for new faces. Make a demo reel, upload it to your site. youtube or whatever, and get ready. Casting calls will start soon for THE ARRANGEMENT. BE READY!" - April 2nd 2014


Ferro Videos from H.M. Ward's YouTube channel:

THE ARRANGEMENT:

THE WEDDING CONTRACT:

H.M. WARD TEASER:



SEXY NEW ADULT VIDEO TEASER BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER HM WARD:


THE ARRANGEMENT VOL 1 - READ BY THE AUTHOR!:


Songs in Ferro teaser videos:

If you want to purchase the songs featured in the Ferro teaser videos, here are the links:

Hungry, by Saints of Silence (on iTunes):
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/hungry/id387236466?i=387236637

A Girl Like Me, by Dream Valley Music (on CD Baby):
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dreamvalleymusic#.U2UHdQAb21U.blogger

Scared to Death, by C.S. Latu

Scared To Death by C.S. Latu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scared To Death by C.S. Latu is a standalone contemporary romance (new adult) novel about Ruby and Noah, best friends since childhood, who have to deal with issues of confusion, misunderstanding and fear of loss when lust and physical attraction start to weave their way into their friendship. Psychological and emotional issues take their toll as we witness the characters evolve through their young adult lives. You can't help but root for them throughout the story. It's one of those deep seated friendships that you don't want to see end.

I stayed up way too late one night while reading Scared To Death because I just HAD to know what was going to happen next. That feeling of not wanting to put the book down hadn't happened to me in a while. I loved the friendship between the 2 main characters. The secondary characters are loveable and the last chapter gives off the impression that one of them might end up with his own novel. 

The eccentric backdrop to this story is unusual and refreshing. Noah is into the art of the macabre, with a passion for making frightful masks and costumes and a good part of the story unfolds in an old house that is home to a wax museum.

Ruby is a very smart young woman and Noah is extremely sexy and sweet. This being said, you do, at one time or another want to slap both of them in the back of the head (but I love them nonetheless!).

A really smart, emotional, quirky, sexy, sad-but-happy book with a good balance of lightheartedness and drama, with unconventional characters that stand out from your traditional romance novel. I love the way C.S. Latu brings her story to life. Very well written.

Technical info: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance. Contains mature content (language, violence and descriptive sexuality). Told alternately from Ruby and Noah's point of view. Characters in their 20's.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

You don't always get a choice in life. You can't control who dies. You can't control who you love and you can't stop change. But you can make a mess of it. 

For Ruby Green, life is about loss. Everyone she has ever loved has died, save one. Her best friend from childhood. He has always been her saving grace. When things change between them, Ruby finds herself lost in a maelstrom of emotions. She's not ready to lose him in order to have him. 

Noah Carrington believes in living. Even if the road is dark, the fear makes you feel alive. Life is too short and regret is a wound that festers. He always saw his best friend, Ruby, in his future, she would be just around the corner in the next room until he started seeing her in his arms.

They both know that being scared to death means you have something to lose. The question is, will they learn that it means you have something to gain too?

The Scandalous Love of a Duke, by Jane Lark

The Scandalous Love of a Duke by Jane Lark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars (3.75 stars)

I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not used to reading historical fiction written by contemporary authors. I was worried that it would come off as cheesy, but it didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

He is a handsome Duke, she is a milkmaid's bastard child. She has always loved him, he becomes obsessed with her. Their story has ups and downs and twists and turns. Social standing and expectations become an obstacle to their true feelings. He has major inner conflicts to resolve and she is resigned to live the lot life has handed her. Drama and steamy romance all around. Sound a bit cliché? Maybe, but it had the desired effect: swoon!

I loved the romance. Every woman needs to be wooed by a beautiful, obstinate Duke once in a while. I liked Katherine. She is a strong, smart and selfless character, always trying to make decisions based on what is best for the people around her, even though it may not be the best thing for her. John is very conflicted, angry and beautiful (I know, I keep coming back to his looks, but, c'mon, that's the whole point of swoony historical romances right?).

The Scandalous Love of a Duke is book 3 in Jane Lark's Regency romance series but it is a standalone book. I haven't read the first two but I just may pick them up for light summer reading. It is a historical romance with sexually descriptive content. It is told from a dual point of view (the Duke and Katherine).

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of The Scandalous Love of a Duke through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Synopsis:

Isolated by life and choice, John Harding, the Duke of Pembroke, sees an angel in a pale mauve dress across a ballroom and is drawn closer.

The wheat-blonde hair escaping her dull dove-grey bonnet caresses her neck and lures his eyes to the spot he'd most like to kiss.

Then as if she senses his gaze the stranger turns and looks at him…

“A rush of pain and longing spilled from Katherine's heart into her limbs. It was so long since she'd seen John but her reaction was the same as it had been more than half-a-dozen years before. She loved him, secretly, without hope, but a chasm of years and status stood between them.”

THE SCANDALOUS LOVE OF A DUKE is book three in Jane Lark's Kindle best-selling Regency romance series.