Synopsis

Jared is a Navy SEAL and Cassie is a divorcee living next door. They are good friends that like hanging out with each other.

“She was in a man-free period in her life and happy for it.”

After a while, Cassie began to see things with Jared differently.

“She’d started to want him to play with her.”

Jared wants her too, but thinks that his secret might turn her off. **NO SPOILERS**

Opinion

This seems like your typical friendship turn lover scenario. Jared’s secret put an interesting twist to the whole story. I had to read the sentence twice. Trust me that his secret was unexpected to say the least.

At any rate, his secret does not mean the end of the relationship. This was a good thing in my opinion because Jared was a sweet guy. Cassie deserved some happiness as well.

This is a short novella, so there was not much character development or fluff to the story.

As with all books with SEALs as main characters, there was a lot of profanity.

Also, the loves scenes were very detailed.

Should you buy? Yes. I say read for Jared’s secret alone! I do not know why this fascinated me so much but it did. Plus I have a soft spot for SEAL romances. The story is short enough that you will finish in an hour or two.

Book details from Goodreads
90 pages
Published December 26th 2014 (first published December 23rd 2014)
series SEALs Undone #2

Available on Amazon

E is for Embattled #atozchallenge #ABCofRomance @AprilA2Z

Apr6

Embattled Hearts (Military Romantic Suspense) (Lost and Found Book 1) ♥♥♥

Synopsis
John is an ex-Marine who is now wheelchair bound due to an injury. He now works at an investigative agency with other veterans.

Shannon is the office manager for the same company. When a stalker begins terrorizing her, John moves in to watch the house and her feel safer.

Opinion
This was cute in the sense that John and Shannon both had crushes on the other person. Shannon tried to be nice to John, but he was so surly all the time. She lusted after him from afar.

“The man was sex on wheels, literally, and it was all she could do not to jump into his lap.”

“The man was too sexy for her peace of mind.”

John was a total grump because he wanted Shannon but thought that she deserved better. He would rebuff her niceties but still put out the vibe to all the other guys in the office that she was his. In a way, it was good that she had a stalker terrorizing her, because it gave John something else to do than feel sorry for himself. The conflict allowed his alpha-male to manifest itself. While he maybe have been in a wheelchair, it did not prevent him from fully taking care of business.

The villain in this book was off the charts crazy. When it is revealed who all is involved, I was surprised that I did not figure it out sooner. There were a few red herrings that the author threw in along the way.

Should you buy? I think this is a good book to buy if you like suspense romance. The suspense is not too intense or gory but I think you will still be entertained. If you can figure out the villain before they are revealed, let me know in the comments. There is explicit language (should be a given considering John is ex-Marine).

Book details from Goodreads
Kindle Edition, 262 pages
Published December 13th 2013 by J.M. Madden (first published February 1st 2013)
series Lost and Found #1

D is for Dangerous #ABCofRomance #a2zchallenge @aprila2z

Apr4

Dangerous ♥♥♥♥

Synopsis
Prudence is 25 (old maid by Victorian standards) and meets with Sebastian in the middle of the night to request that he not fight her brother in a duel. Sebastian is intrigued that Prudence has such a lack of regard for social conventions, that he grants her request. Additionally, they share an interest in investigating mysteries.

It seems that Prudence is constantly getting into precarious situations and Sebastian feels obligated to stick close to her in order to help her. Prudence has nothing but confidence in Sebastian’s abilities to protect her because she thinks he is a gentleman despite his supposed reputation.

Opinion
Before I begin, I must preface this opinion by saying that I have loved Amanda Quick’s writing style since I was a teenager (all her heroes are my book boyfriends). Even though a lot of her books have a very consistent formula using a surly, but honor bound hero and a very independent, sometimes rash thinking heroine, I find her books very entertaining. This book met expectations and did not stray from the proven base formula.

One of the things that I most enjoyed about this book is the dialogue between Sebastian and Prudence.

“My dear, there are occasions when I don’t know quite which it is that I admire most about you: your cleverness or your passionate response to me in bed.” – Sebastian

Prudence’s reply, “I know it is a difficult choice.”

Of course, Prudence rarely listened when Sebastian told her to stay in one place. This led to many potentially risky situations. Sebastian took it all in stride. He knew his woman.

“I had a hunch you wouldn’t follow orders” – Sebastian

He only had himself to blame for marrying a woman who shared his enthusiasm for investigation.

Prudence was not my favorite heroine of all of the books that I have read by Amanda Quick because at times I thought she seemed to be shrewish. However, I think that Sebastian’s personality was so strong that it didn’t matter as much that she was too bossy because he’s only going to let her get her way when he wants her to. The most important aspect is how she made him feel and that was all that mattered.

She was so warm and he had been cold for so long.

Should you buy? Yes! Especially so if you are a Victorian romance fan. I think you will laugh out loud at some of Prudence’s antics.

Book details from Goodreads
Paperback, 339 pages
Published April 1993 by Bantam Books (first published January 1st 1993)

Available on Amazon

Foodie Friday #graze #snackfood

Apr3

I debated doing Foodie Friday this month since I am already doing an April challenge that is consuming my free time. Check out my A to Z blog posts throughout the month. Anyways, as you can see, I decided I did not want to skip a month. I will make this short and sweet.

Foodie Friday is all about delish food and I have found this wonderful snack subscription service at Graze.com. My friend told me about it because she knows I am a foodie.

Graze provides wholesome, portion controlled sized snack options delivered to your each week. I admit the concept intrigued me. However, I was worried that I would get snacks that I did not like because you do not choose specifically which snacks are in your subscription box each week. I rated their snacks in one of four categories: never send, try, like, or love.

In the beginning, I had several snacks that I said that I would like to try.

Now many of those “will try” have been changed to love.

My absolute fave so far has been Chili & Lime Pistachios. I love pistachios and the added seasoning kicked up the snack to a whole different level. I wish they had included an additional packet of the seasoning so that I could just eat that. It was a little spicy, salty with a hint of lime sour.

Second fave is Caramel apples. And this snack was on 80 calories!!!! While I wish the apples had been crunchy, the caramel sauce was perfection. Knowing the snack was 80 calories meant that I could eat all my caramel sauce. I am very picky when it comes to caramel sauce because many times it is too sweet.

The other two snacks in the picture are Thai Sweet Chili bites and Cinnamon Fig roll.

These are gourmet snacks and the company is committed to making snack food healthy. The quality can be tasted in their products. I hope they keep making these for a very long time.

If you want to try for yourself, first box is free when you use my reward code AMARYL6XP

Or you can click here https://www.graze.com/us/p/AMARYL6XU

And Graze management, if you are reading this, I am willing to be a food tester for future snack flavor combinations.

Book Review: Kali- Destroyer of Worlds

Apr3

My first review for The Reading Bud.

The Reading Bud

19078778

Author: Mike Kuykendall
Release Date: 1st September 2014
Series: Stand alone
Genre: Dystopian | Post-Apocalyptic
Edition: Kindle
Pages: 384 (4523 Kindle pages)                            
Publisher: Createspace
Source: Author
Buy it here: Amazon

Blurb

A gamma ray burst starts civilization crumbling, and a suicidal little girl must embrace her inner darkness to survive. Through death and fire, Rebecca Wilder has been reborn. Will her destructive revenge take the world with it, or can a twelve-year old girl salvage her humanity and stop nuclear annihilation? Kali – Destroyer of Worlds follows Becky’s journey as she confronts the horrors that are left behind after the world ends.

Rating

3-stars

Review

Plot/Story:

With an opening scene of Becca running and bleeding after slitting her wrist in a suicide attempt, the story begins at a fast pace. As she transforms from Becca to her Kali persona, there was a definite energy that I felt as a reader in…

View original post 801 more words