Book Review: Nuts by Alice Clayton

Title: Nuts
Series: Hudson Valley, Book 1
Author: Alice Clayton
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: October 20, 2015 Gallery Books

After losing almost all of her clients in one fell swoop following an accident involving whipped cream, private chef to Hollywood’s elite Roxie Callahan gets a call from her flighty mother, saying she’s needed home in upstate New York to run the family diner. Once she's back in the Hudson Valley, local organic farmer Leo delivers Roxie a lovely bunch of walnuts, and soon sparks—and clothing—begin to fly. Leo believes that everything worth doing is worth doing slowly…and how! But will Roxie stay upstate, or will the lure of West Coast redemption tempt her back to Tinseltown?

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Book Review: One Night of Sin by Elle Kennedy

Title: One Night of Sin
Series: After Hours, Book 1
Author: Elle Kennedy
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: free Kindle book
Published: August 4, 2014 by Entangled Brazen

When it comes to sex, good girl Skyler Thompson always plays it safe, choosing stable and sedate over wild and thrilling. She doesn’t do one-night-stands, but one look at sinfully sexy Gage Holt and she’s willing to reconsider. He makes her want to be bad for once in her life, and she’s prepared to take what she wants.

Danger follows former MMA fighter Gage Holt like a shadow. Despite his successes as part owner of Sin, an exclusive nightclub in Boston, Gage can’t risk getting involved with a woman, especially one as sweet as Skyler. Still, he can’t resist a taste—and it’s so damn good he has to see her again.

As addicted as he is to her, Gage knows there’s no future for him and Skyler—not with his past lurking in the dark corners of an MMA cage. But Skyler’s tougher than she looks, and she’s ready to fight for her man.

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Book Review: The Shepherd and the Solicitor by Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee

Title: The Shepherd and the Solicitor
Author: Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee
Genre: Historical Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: September 29, 2015 by Samhain Publishing

When a storm is brewing, taking shelter could be the most dangerous move of all.

One careless, public sign of affection cost Daniel Pierce’s lover his life at the hands of a hate-filled mob. Grief-stricken, Daniel retreated from society to a sheep farm in the wilds of the north. Years later, Gregory Tobin erupts into his solitary life.

Sent to confirm the existence—or the death—of the Pierce family’s lost heir, Tobin isn’t sure he’s found the right man. The gruff, shaggy hermit calling himself Jacob Bennet bears little resemblance to photographs of the younger Pierce. Tobin needs more time to study his quarry.

With lambing season in full swing, Daniel grudgingly admits he could use an extra hand. Through a long, exhausting night, they parry back and forth as Tobin probes closer and closer to the truth. And something beyond casual attraction simmers between them.

They come together in a crash of desire, but ultimately Daniel must overcome the terrors of the past to reconcile the man he was with the man he’s becoming—a man capable of loving again.

Warning: Many sexy encounters on a sheep farm—NO, not like THAT!—between two adult males with temperaments as different as night and day.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Serving Pleasure by Alisha Rai

Title: Serving Pleasure
Series: Pleasure, Book 2
Author: Alisha Rai
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: June 12, 2015 (self-published)

Hungry for a touch…

Rana Malik is over being her family’s resident black sheep. She’s on a mission: ditch the casual hook-ups, revamp her bad-girl image, and fall in love with a proper Mr. Right even her conservative mama can’t find fault with. Not on the menu? The beautiful, brooding Mr. Right Now who lives next door, and all the ways he whets her appetite.

Starving for love…

Artist Micah Hale had it all–women, success, friends and family–until his world changed in a single act of senseless violence. Now struggling to conceal his scars and get his life and career back on track, he knows he has nothing to offer a woman except his body. He’s not looking for love…but he can’t control his craving for the sexy bombshell voyeur he’s caught looking at him.

Just one bite.

Their attraction boils over, and their defenses are stripped off along with their clothes. They promise they’ll walk away if it gets too hot. But it’s hard to do the right thing…when being wrong feels so good.

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Reviewed by: Babs

Book Review: The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston

Title: The Unleashing
Series: Call of Crows, Book 1
Author: Shelly Laurenston
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: March 31, 2015 by Kensington

WINGING IT

Kera Watson never expected to face death behind a Los Angeles coffee shop. Not after surviving two tours lugging an M16 around the Middle East. If it wasn’t for her hot Viking customer showing up too late to help, nobody would even see her die.

In uncountable years of service to the Allfather Odin, Ludvig “Vig” Rundstrom has never seen anyone kick ass with quite as much style as Kera. He knows one way to save her life—but she might not like it. Signing up with the Crows will get Kera a new set of battle buddies: cackling, gossiping, squabbling, party-hearty women. With wings. So not the Marines.

But Vig can’t give up on someone as special as Kera. With a storm of oh-crap magic speeding straight for L.A., survival will depend on combining their strengths: Kera’s discipline, Vig’s loyalty… and the Crows’ sheer love of battle. Boy, are they in trouble.

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Reviewed by: Babs

Book Review: Anything But Broken by Joelle Knox

Title: Anything But Broken
Series: Hurricane Creek, Book 1
Author: Joelle Knox
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: August 25, 2015 (self-published)

After five years, tragedy brings Hannah Casey back to Hurricane Creek to bury what’s left of her family. She’s flunking out of college, haunted by scandal, and the only person who cares is Sean Whitlow, an irresistible bad boy with a soft spot for her. The problem? He’s her dead sister’s ex.

Sean doesn’t bleed red, he bleeds motor oil. During the week, he struggles to turn his auto repair shop into a profitable business. But when Saturday night rolls around, he’s the reigning stock-car king of the local race track. He doesn’t know how to lose–or how to walk away and leave Hannah alone with her grief.

Between her grades and her wealthy family’s dark secrets, Hannah’s barely holding her life together. And the last thing Sean needs is to get tangled up with another Casey girl. As the attraction between them spins out of control, they’ll either find a love with no limits–or go up in flames.

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Reviewed by: Babs

Book Review: Flirting with Disaster by Victoria Dahl

Title: Flirting with Disaster
Series: Jackson: Girl’s Night Out, Book 2
Author: Victoria Dahl
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: January 27, 2015 by HQN Books

There's no hiding from sizzling chemistry…

Artist Isabelle West has good reasons for preferring a solitary life. Tucked away in a cabin in the woods, she has everything she needs . . . except a red-hot love life. That is, until a hard-bodied U.S. marshal threatens to unearth secrets she's spent years protecting. But giving in to the sparks flying between them can only lead to one thing…disaster.

Tom Duncan lives by the letter of the law. But no one has tempted him—or confused him—more than free-spirited Isabelle, who arouses his suspicion and his desire. As their connection grows, and their nights get hotter, they find their wild attraction might shake everything he stands for—and expose everything she has to hide

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: The Mistake by Elle Kennedy

Title: The Mistake
Series: Off-Campus, Book 2
Author: Elle Kennedy
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: April 28, 2015

He’s a player in more ways than one…

College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants. For this hockey star, life is a parade of parties and hook-ups, but behind his killer grins and easygoing charm, he hides growing despair about the dead-end road he’ll be forced to walk after graduation. A sexy encounter with freshman Grace Ivers is just the distraction he needs, but when a thoughtless mistake pushes her away, Logan plans to spend his final year proving to her that he’s worth a second chance.

Now he’s going to need to up his game…

After a less than stellar freshman year, Grace is back at Briar University, older, wiser, and so over the arrogant hockey player she nearly handed her V-card to. She’s not a charity case, and she’s not the quiet butterfly she was when they first hooked up. If Logan expects her to roll over and beg like all his other puck bunnies, he can think again. He wants her back? He’ll have to work for it. This time around, she’ll be the one in the driver’s seat…and she plans on driving him wild.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Bayou Blues by Sierra Dean

Title: Bayou Blues
Series: Genie McQueen, Book 1
Author: Sierra Dean
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: bought
Published: March 20, 2015 (self-published)

When your sister has saved the world, you have a lot to live up to.

Genie McQueen thought she’d seen it all after helping her big sister Secret stop the Apocalypse. The dead walked, New York City burned, and things nearly went to hell in a hand basket. After it was all over, the world knew about vampires and werewolves, and Genie’s life would never be the same.

But now, three years later, someone doesn’t want werewolves or any supernatural creatures to live alongside humans. A new anti-werewolf church with a charismatic leader and a cult-like following has declared open season on Genie’s whole species. When a member of her pack is kidnapped, she decides it’s time to stop going with the flow and to step up and fight for her people.

Tagging along for the ride is a handsome troublemaker, Wilder Shaw, a pack outsider who just wants to save his brother, but will leave Genie’s head spinning in the process.

Equally troubling are the ghosts of her past she can’t quite shake, the nightmarish figures who haunt her even when she’s wide awake, and a dark magic inside her she hasn’t yet learned to tame.

Things are about to get messy in the bayou.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Viscount’s Wager by Ava March

Title: Viscount’s Wager
Series: Gambling on Love, Book 3
Author: Ava March
Genre: Historical Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: August 10, 2015 by Carina Press

Anthony, Viscount Rawling, knows exactly what he wants in life and he isn't above having a look about London for it. When he spots recently widowed Gabriel Tilden at a ton function, he thinks he might have found love…again.

Gabriel is as gorgeous and reserved as he was when he broke Anthony's heart seven years ago. But they were only adolescents then…surely Anthony won't hold the incident against him. And especially not when the attraction between them is stronger than ever.

Gabriel came to London in search of distraction, and a teasing Anthony is impossible to resist. As Anthony introduces Gabriel to the pleasures that can be found in the city—and in his bedchamber—their bond deepens into something more. Yet both men are hiding secrets that could pull them apart forever

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Sacrifice by Kate Pearce

Title: Sacrifice
Series: Tribute, Book 1
Author: Kate Pearce
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: September 7, 2015 by Riptide

Awaiting execution on a foreign planet, Anna Lee has nothing left to lose—until Commander Rehz Akran offers her a chance to escape her fate. Anything is better than death, but when her training for Akran’s mysterious mission begins, the brutality is hard to take . . . especially since Anna has no idea what the workouts, beatings, and endless sexual demands are preparing her for.

Rehz Akran doesn’t deal with failure. He’s determined that his last trainee will survive her immersion in an unimaginably alien world and return alive—even if it means she’ll hate him forever. He needs to stay detached, but his new recruit makes that impossible. Soon he’s willing to defy his own training for a chance to forge a true connection with Anna.

It’s Rehz’s job to teach Anna to survive as a Tribute. And if she does, it’s his task to help her overcome the trauma of the experience. But this time he isn’t doing it to save his planet. This time he’s doing it for love.

Reader discretion advised. This title contains the following sensitive themes: Dubious Consent, Non-Consent, Explicit Violence, Heavy Kink

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Outcast Cowboys by Sarah Masters

Title: Outcast Cowboys
Author: Sarah Masters
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: July 21, 2015 by Pride Publishing

Ross decides to start a new life away from the grim belly of London, England, unable to stomach being a cop any longer. He tells himself he’s moving miles away to find himself a bed partner, but he’s lying. He has to. Facing up to the real reason he’s leaving isn’t something he can handle. His last undercover job proved too much—his life was at risk—and if he stays in London he’ll likely end up dead. Nightmares plague him, his subconscious unable to switch the past off. So he moves to a ranch in America, thinking the new surroundings and different lifestyle will help him to heal—and to forget. What he soon realizes is he’s jumping from the frying pan into the fire…

Joe’s passion—that of caring for the horses—is the only thing that keeps him sane. He’s a surly man, and for good reason—a reason he hasn’t told a soul. Folks think he’s mean and unapproachable and suspect him of committing murder. More than once. Locals assume that Joe got let off the hook. Nothing could be further from the truth, but Joe lets people think what they will. He’s done with their speculation and sly looks.

When Ross and Joe meet, tension is rife. The air between them prickles with animosity as well as sexual tension. Both have a past they can’t get over. Both have skeletons in their closets they wish would turn to dust. And both have to make a decision. Can they cast their fears aside and trust each other, or have the terrors they’ve experienced ruined them for love?

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Shadows Strike by Dianne Duvall

Title: Shadows Strike
Series: Immortal Guardians, Book 6
Author: Dianne Duvall
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: August 25, 2015 by Zebra

U.S. law enforcement agent Heather Lane can read minds. But not the future. The dream of battle and blood that recurs every night must be a fluke, some obscure terror from her own mind. What its significance might be, she can’t guess: an attack from seven psychotic vampires at once, only separated from nightmare by an eighth very different immortal. A handsome, brave man fighting at her side, a man she misses when she wakes.

Then the dream comes true. Heather is flung into a war between predators and protectors of humanity, the man from her dreams beside her again. Except now that she’s awake, she isn’t sure she can trust Ethan, or the shadow organization he represents. The U.S. military doesn’t trust either of them. But against an onslaught of evil like the one that’s coming, it will take everything they have just to survive.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: So Tough to Tame by Victoria Dahl

Title: So Tough to Tame
Series: Jackson Hole, Book 3
Author: Victoria Dahl
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: September 24, 2013 by Harlequin HQN

Tough to tame, but not too tough to love... Charlie Allington is supposed to be on the fast track to the top-a small-town girl who was making it big in her career. Instead, she's reeling from a scandal that's pretty much burned all her bridges. Now, out of options, she needs a place to lick her wounds and figure out her future. True, working at a ski resort in rugged Jackson Hole, Wyoming, isn't her dream job. But if there's one perk to coming back, it's a certain sexy hometown boy who knows how to make a girl feel welcome. 

Cowboy Walker Pearce never expected a grown-up Charlie to be temptation in tight jeans. She's smart and successful-way out of league for a man like him. But he's not about to let that, or his secrets, get in the way of their blazing-hot attraction. Yet when passion turns to something more, will the truth-about both of them-send her out of his life for good...or into his arms forever?

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Reviewed by: Monica

Book Review: Breathe Deep by Willa Okati

Title: Breathe Deep
Series: St. Hawk’s Medical, Book 3
Author: Willa Okati
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: Review copy provided by publisher
Published: July 28, 2015 by Pride Publishing

A golden-hearted mountain man. A nursing tech with a secret. Life and death are on the line—and they’re running out of time.

Shepherd knows what people think of him. He’s too big, too tall and too broad not to be scary. But though he looks like a grizzly bear, he’s all teddy on the inside. He’s dreamed of finding someone to love. Someone who can help him break through his shyness and who he can shower with all the affection in his heart.

Kit knows what people think of him. That he’s young, good-looking, and kissed by luck. He survived leukemia as a teenager, and he thought he had his entire life ahead of him. But now, the cancer might be recurring—deny it though he might—and Kit’s world has come crashing down. He needs someone like Shepherd. Someone kind and caring, who’s strong enough to lean on.

Kit’s falling fast for the big mountain man—but he hasn’t told Shepherd the truth. He’s afraid that knowing he may be sick will be more than Shepherd can handle. And now, after delaying treatment, he thinks he may be running out of time.

Secrets can be life or death—and when it comes to telling the truth, they can make all the difference.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

Title: When a Scot Ties the Knot
Series: Castles Ever After, Book 3
Author: Tessa Dare
Genre: Historical Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: August 25, 2015 by Avon

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shyly pretty and talented with a drawing pencil, but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: she invented a sweetheart.

A Scottish sweetheart. One who was handsome and honorable and devoted to her, but conveniently never around. Maddie poured her heart into writing the imaginary Captain MacKenzie letter after letter … and by pretending to be devastated when he was (not really) killed in battle, she managed to avoid the pressures of London society entirely.

Until years later, when this kilted Highland lover of her imaginings shows up in the flesh. The real Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives on her doorstep—handsome as anything, but not entirely honorable. He’s wounded, jaded, in possession of her letters… and ready to make good on every promise Maddie never expected to keep.

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Reviewed by: Sara

Book Review: Heat Exchange by Shannon Stacey

Title: Heat Exchange
Series: Boston Fire, Book 1
Author: Shannon Stacey
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: August 25, 2015 by Carina Press

Lydia Kincaid's shipping back to Boston, but she's not happy about it. She left to get away from the firefighting community—her father was a firefighter, her brother's a firefighter and, more important, her ex is a firefighter. But family is number one, and her father needs her help running the pub he bought when he retired. Soon, Lydia finds it hard to resist the familiar comfort and routine, and even harder to resist her brother's handsome friend Aidan.

Aidan Hunt is a firefighter because of the Kincaid family. He's had the hots for Lydia for years, but if ever a woman was off-limits to him, it's her. Aside from being his mentor's daughter, she's his best friend's sister. The ex-wife of a fellow firefighter. But his plan to play it cool until she leaves town again fails, and soon he and Lydia have crossed a line they can't uncross.

As Aidan and Lydia's flirtation turns into something more serious, Lydia knows she should be planning her escape. Being a firefighter's wife was the hardest thing she's ever done, and she doesn't know if she has the strength to do it again. Aidan can't imagine walking away from Boston Fire—even for Lydia. The job and the brotherhood are his life; but if he wants Lydia in it, he'll have to decide who's first in his heart.

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Book Review: Picking Up the Pieces by E.L. Green

Title: Picking Up the Pieces
Series: Broken, Book 1
Author: E.L. Green
Genre: Contemporary Romance, MC Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: January 2, 2015

Ellie finally found her knight in shining armour. She thought she had her happily ever after. But of course, not all stories have a happy ending, and tragedy strikes in the worst form. Widowed at twenty-four, she turns to her old friend tequila.

Her best friend and fellow nurse leaves England to start a new life in Vancouver, Canada, but not before inviting Ellie to join her. Both agree this could be the fresh start she needs. A way to escape her haunting memories. Unfortunately, life has other ideas and throws Ellie a new set of trials. The biggest one being Kyle—“Prez” of the Angels of Death MC.

Kyle’s life is the MC… and his kid brother. He doesn’t do relationships. He doesn’t do love. But fate throws a feisty Brit in his path, with more baggage than a Boeing 747. Not only does Ellie manage to crawl under his skin, but she manages to unintentionally crawl her way into his normally stone-cold heart.

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Reviewed by: Sara

Book Review: In His Wildest Dreams by Marie Treanor

Title: In His Wildest Dreams
Author: Marie Treanor
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: August 26, 2014 by Samhain Publishing

Every dream can come true…in unexpected ways.

The only time Glenn Brody acted on the waking dreams his mother called second sight, he landed in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he keeps himself grounded in the real world, turning a neglected Scottish mansion into a co-op that gives ex-cons a second chance.

He’s almost managed to ignore the persistent, erotically charged dreams featuring a beautiful, passionate woman—until that woman accosts him in the street to ask for a job.

In hiding from her violent ex, Izzy Ross has made a peaceful life for herself and her young son in the isolated Highland village of Ardknocken. Handsome men with a criminal record aren’t high on her list, but when work dries up, she’s forced to ask Glenn for a menial cleaning job at the big, dusty house.

Their mutual attraction turns all their preconceived notions upside down, and stirs the mansion’s legendary ghost. Attracting the kind of media attention that could force Glenn to make a perilous choice to save the woman he’s grown to love.

Warning: Contains a mansion full of unlikely heroes, liberal and colorful use of Scottish slang, a medieval ghost, and enough hot sex to spice up the chilliest Highland night.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: The Taming of the Billionaire by Jessica Clare

Title: The Taming of the Billionaire
Series: Billionaires and Bridesmaids, Book 2
Author: Jessica Clare
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: July 21, 2015 by InterMix

Edie’s an overbearing cat behaviorist who’s not big on people. Magnus is a newly-rich game developer who likes to be in control. When the two of them meet at Gretchen and Hunter’s masquerade engagement party, the loathing is mutual. Unfortunately for them—and everyone else—they’re in the wedding party together and must deal with each other for the next few months.

But when Magnus’s younger brother falls for Edie’s sister, he begs for his brother’s help in concocting a plan to win her over. If Magnus can keep the prickly Edie occupied, his brother will have time to woo Edie’s sister. Of course, Magnus isn’t interested in the slightest, but Edie is…intriguing. And stubborn. And smart. And sexy. And they might have more in common than they thought.

Before long, it becomes a challenge between the two of them to see who will be tamed first. But how’s Edie going to react when she finds out that Magnus is using her? And how’s Magnus going to handle the fact that he’s fallen for a cat lady?

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Reviewed by: Sara