Coming Home by Priscilla Glenn

Synopsis

Leah Marino hasn’t been on a date in two years. After discovering the man she loved had manipulated and deceived her, she refuses to even entertain the idea of a relationship. Instead, she focuses her attention on taking care of her family, a role she’s assumed since the death of her mother and the one place she knows her kindness won't be taken advantage of again.

When a nostalgic trip back to her childhood home results in a chance encounter with Danny DeLuca, a smart-mouthed mechanic who’s as attractive as he is mysterious, Leah's carefully cultivated walls begin to crumble. She finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Danny, despite his unreliable behavior and mixed signals.

But Danny has a secret...

One that could shake Leah's already precarious foundation and bring her world crashing down around her. Suddenly, she's faced with an incredibly difficult decision--is she willing to risk everything for the chance at finding the love she's always wanted? Or are some obstacles just too big for the heart to overcome?

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Review

I LOVE Priscilla Glenn so much!

COMING HOME is an awefreakingtasic read. It was bloody brilliant. I have no complains about this book. Ms. Glenn's writing has so many emotions packed in each and every word that they worm your way into your heart going deep deep deep into your soul. I bow down to each message she has in her books because they make my soul sing happily. My ravenous soul who is always famished for more knowledge absorbs so much in her books that when I'm finished I'm searching for more in that blank page staring at me. It's cycle that happens with each of her books. 

One of the lines that touched me is...

"Will the reward be worth the suffering?" 

You have to constantly remind yourself when there is so much pain surrounding you wrapped around you like a glove that whatever you are going through is worth it in the end. Does it even mean so much to you to go through it? It just sums it right up. Beautifully. Perfect to the T. I've always questioned the whys of going through pain but I never thought of it in the sense 'if its worth it' nor have I been able to articulate it perfectly and that sentence just did.

“There was something about him that spoke to a long-forgotten part of her – that awakened something dormant in her soul and made her want things again.”

Leah's friends and family are her best support system EVER. They are the best. If a girl has them than she seriously doesn't need anyone else. However, this guy comes in her life and he is slowing worming his way in her thoughts. Creating havoc of her emotions but does he live up what she already has. Does he deserve her? After her past she can't trust her judgement but this guy got her so caught up in his web that she has to make a choice, but than there is his secret which may changes things up. May mess up everything. What does Leah have to lose... everything.

“Being with him, talking to him, was the emotional equivalent of bungee jumping. There was the freedom, the adrenaline, the exhilaration of the fall, only to have it come to an abrupt halt, roughly yanking her back in the direction from which she came.”

I loved Danny DeLuca (he's name -sigh- tugs my heart) so much. He has such an amazing character that calls for attention. His devotion, loyalty, love and friendship is a breath of fresh air. Than on the other hand is his secret that has already made a mess of his life. Already has taken so much away. Does he even have room to add this beautiful, sweet girl into his life. Is it fair to bring her right in the middle of the mess. Than there is this other side of him that isn't so messed up, he has spectacular friends (like Jake - I love him! we need his book Priscilla!!) and his amazing Gram. I love that woman she is so... I don't even seem to have a word that could do justice to that sweet lady. Everyone needs a Gram like his in their life.

The beauty of this book is that it takes you in slowly, builds tension, tugs you into the story and you are only left with emotions that aren't yours but theirs. Mingled with your own. You finish with happy tears and a huge grin on your face. Your soul is fulfilled to its hearts content. 

“… there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the day she met Danny, the stars had aligned just for her.”

6 SOULFUL DANNY DELUCA STARS

★★★★★★

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MEET PRISCILLA

Priscilla Glenn lives in New York with her husband and three children. She has been teaching English at the middle and high school levels for the past twelve years while moonlighting as a writer, mom, coach, student, and professional laundry-doer.  

If you catch her when she's feeling sophisticated, she'll tell you her favorite things are great books and good wine. In the moments in between, she'll admit her love for anything Ben and Jerry's, UFC fights, and Robert Pattinson.  

Glenn is the author of the contemporary romance novels Back to You, Emancipating Andie, and Coming Home. You can contact her at priscilla.glenn3@gmail.com 

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Worn Me Down by Tara Sivec

Synopsis

“Worn me down like a road. I did everything you told. Worn me down to my knees. I did everything to please.”

Austin Conrad has never taken his personal life seriously. As a Navy SEAL, he spends all of his time in dangerous, life-threatening situations. The only way to leave behind the horrors he’s seen throughout his career, is to turn it all off when he gets home. He’s too much of a playboy to settle down; even if he did find a woman he could stand to be around for more than one night, he would never taint her life with the demons of his past.

When his best friend and SEAL team member, Brady Marshall asks him to keep an eye on his baby sister, Gwen, Austin figures it will be a walk in the park. The only thing Austin likes more than flirting his way under a beautiful woman’s skin, is walking away with a smile on his face. Austin never expects that the single mom and her little girl will be the ones getting under his skin.

Gwen Stratford knows all too well about living in a nightmare. After taking her daughter and fleeing from her abusive husband in the middle of the night several months ago, she’s worked hard to get her life back on track and forget about the man who tried to break her. Growing up under the iron thumb of her parents and then moving right on with a man who ruled their marriage with his fists, Gwen is finally able to breathe and live her life the way she wants.

When scary, mysterious things begin to happen to Gwen and her daughter, she realizes you can never outrun your past; it always has a way of catching up with you. As she struggles with the desire to keep her newfound independence, she knows she won’t be able to protect herself and her child alone. She’ll need to lean on the one man who drives her crazy.

Can Gwen really put her trust in a man who thinks life is one big joke, or will he be just another man in her life who tries to wear her down?

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Review

After A Beautiful Lie this is far by my favourite book of the Playing with Fire series. It's a deeply emotional book that shows how women, who've overcome domestic violence and abuse, get out as an even stronger woman. When they have lived and breathed that type of life its hard for the smartest woman to know when they need to get out. Eventually they will die a slow death as days go on. Whether its their partner killing them in the end or its because you give up. 

Gwen couldn't afford to give up because she has this little angel of hers that she couldn't leave in this hell she has been living in and gets the hell out. Goes to her brother who've she hasn't spoken to ever since he left home hoping he takes her in and he does. But she's an independent and strong woman who works so hard in order to give her daughter the best. 

Than there is Austin who've had a very hard life growing up and being a SEAL is the best thing that happened to him, going into dangerous situations and making changes is his life. He doesn't want it any other way. After his friend asks him a favour to look after his sister while he is gone, he says yes thinking its going to be easy job and getting under Gwen's skin is something he thoroughly enjoys however everything isn't as what he thought it would be like and the tables turn. From easy it went into a life threatening situation. He has to protect Gwen and her daughter with everything in him. Or he might lose so much more than he bargained for. 

I love Austin so much! He was an amazing character and just what Gwen needed. What they were running away from is what they really need. 

Gwen's daughter Emma is adorable. I want to hug and kiss that little girl. She is the cutest little angel and having her in this book made it even more better because that little girl is a little lady in hiding  who brought humor in to the story and shined it! 

Emma's friendship with Austin just showed what kind of man Austin is. It is said the kids and dogs can judge a good character right away and that's what Emma did. Man did she nail it. 

This book gave us the best of the worlds because we see Brady again (YAY!) just for a brief period and get to know what's happening with Layla and Brady after Because of You.

Beautifully written. So many feels. Just the right amount of humour and suspense. Kept me at the edge and Austin and Gwen's relationship was intense, beautiful, emotional and perrfffeecctttt!!! <3

Tara Sivec's book are fantabulous! I just don't have the right amount of words to describe how much I LOVED it! 

5 AWEFREAKINGTASIC SEXY AUSTIN STARS!

★★★★★

MEET TARA

Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.

After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. She is the author of the Playing with Fire series and the Chocolate Lovers series. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book.

In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.

Tara also writes under the pen name T.E. Sivec. 

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Awaken by Nina Lane

Synopsis

“I love that you love me, professor.”
“I love loving you, beauty.”

Since their intense, passionate beginning, Professor Dean West and his wife Olivia have fought dark secrets and betrayal in order to save their marriage. Now reeling in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Liv and Dean are driven further apart by a vindictive threat to Dean’s career.

Struggling to stand on her own for the first time in years, Liv is determined to defend her husband and prove herself. Then an unexpected letter dredges up old insecurities and endangers Liv’s newfound independence. As Dean fights for his professional life, he is forced to confront his worst fear when he discovers that he can’t protect his beloved wife from her own painful past.

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Review

This is far by one of my most favourite series. I love it so much. Professor Dean has stolen my heart from the way he loves Liv, when he calls her beauty and when he wants to protect her from everything even when she wanted to be to become independent, she didn't want to stand behind Dean when problems came their way but stand beside him. 

That is a beauty of a marriage. It's relationship where two people give just as much as the other. Each book was a lesson to them, they had so much to learn after marriage, after their happily ever after, there is so much on the other side of an happily ever after. As long as you are living you keep struggling, you just need to be strong enough to overcome it, especially as a couple when it’s testing the strength of your marriage, your love and trust. That's what Arouse, Allure and Awaken have shown and it kept getting better. There is so much after you fall in love, you need to maintain it, you need to trust, and you need to compromise but above all keep loving each other and supporting one another. You just need to keep falling for each other even more than before.

Dean understood Liv more than she understands herself and just gave her what she needed. Just kept loving her. -Sigh- it was just beautiful. They were two halves of a soul and they each fulfill the others shortcomings. They make each other a better person. Their love is beautiful, pure and soul-consuming it. It consumes them so much that they breathe each other in each day and that fulfills their yearning for that while they are away from one another. 

I’m at lost what to say about them that I haven’t said already or you haven’t grasped it, they are my ultimate favourite couple. They make me smile, laugh, cry and angry. They’ve become so close that saying goodbye is bittersweet. Why this review took so long. Because it’s hard to say goodbye. However I’m taking them away and hiding them with me. They will forever live happily ever after with me. Always.

Thanks so much to Nina for giving us Dean and Liv because without knowing them our lives wouldn’t be as special without them in it. (Yes they are real to me and if anyone says they’re not; we aren’t friends anymore ;) LOL) 

What else can I say about this gorgeous couple?!?! 

My verdict! 

6 GORGEOUS PROFESSOR DEAN AND LIV STARS!!!

 

Kiss the Sky by Krista & Becca Ritchie

Synopsis

Virgin. Sex addict. Daredevil. Alcoholic. Smartass … Jackass. Her five friends are about to be filmed. Reality TV, be prepared.

Rose Calloway thought she had everything under control. At twenty-three, she’s a Princeton graduate, an Academic Bowl champion, a fashion designer and the daughter of a Fortune 500 mogul. But with a sex addict as a sister and roommate, nothing comes easy.

After accepting help from a producer, Rose agrees to have her life filmed for a reality television show. The Hollywood exec is her last chance to revive her struggling fashion line, and boundaries begin to blur as she’s forced to make nice with a man who always has his way.

Twenty-four-year-old Connor Cobalt is a guy who bulldozes weak men. He’s confident, smart-as-hell and lives with his equally ambitious girlfriend, Rose Calloway. Connor has to find a way to protect Rose without ruining the show. Or else the producer, who’s never been denied a thing, will get what Connor has always wanted—Rose’s virginity.

This New Adult Standalone Romance can be described as Friends meets The Real World. Expect fist fights, drugs, sex of varying degrees, crude humor and competitive alpha males. Definitely for mature readers audiences only.

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Review

WHOA. I'm BLOWN away. I LOVED THIS STORY. I LOVE Connor, Rose, Sadie (yes the cat, I love her! ;), Lo, Lily, Daisy and Ryke.

I absolutely ENJOYED reading it. An absolute PLEASURE!!!! Krista and Becca outdid themselves with this book. 

Rose and Connor compliment each other in the best of ways and it was beautiful to see them blossom throughout this book. Their relationship is so unique from the others but you can see they are two halves of a soul and its just beautiful to see them together. When they interact, talk in French, their constant competing and just them being themselves. I love how they go way out for each other and their family. They fight with each other and they fight others together and that's what I love about my favourite couples.

I loved that Connor was a smartass. He was witty, hilarious, possessive, intelligent and carries off a conversation so beautifully that the other person has to bow down to the genius that Connor is. (We shouldn't really mention that to him right, or else he will have too big of head to live with bwhaha ;)

I love how Rose is. I love that she is confident about who she is but just like any other person she has a weakness - her mother. They way she treats her. The way she handles her mother. I love how much she loves her sisters and how far she is willing to go to protect them. I love how intelligent she is and how she takes no shit. (I need to take lessons from her! ;) 

I'll say this now. I f**king HATE Scott. There its out there. I HATE him from the beginning to the very end. (Why you wonder? Well you'll have to read it for yourself ;) LOL) 

There is just something so very addicting about KBR's writing (yes I'm giving them that name now, its so much easier! :), they've made me feel like I'm really there with them. Fighting their problems away and trying to find the best solution for them. These people aren't fictional for me at all, they are family and their pain is my pain. If they are angry, I'm ten times even more angry than them. 

I can support that with saying that my hatred for Scott knows no bounds that I am thinking of ways for him to suffer in the worst way you can imagine. His death happens in so many different ways in the horrifying manner. As I'm writing and I coming up with another way to kill him off. (Yes I'm not joking. That asshat!)

OK. I better stop myself right now because I can go on and on about it. ;) 

I love the ending so much. I REALLY hope Krista and Becca write more Connor and Rose for us! I definitely will be reading it as soon as I can get my hands on it!! <3

KBR books I'll read blindly because they are amazing and they keep getting better and better. :D Looking really forward to Hothouse Flower, Daisy and Ryke's book.

Overall this story is awefreakingtasic. Went above and beyond what I thought would happen. Which I loved so much. Surprised me at so many turns of the story and kept me at my toes. There was never a part of the story where I lost interest like I said it got better and better. 

So that means... 

My verdict.... 

Is...

6 GENIUS CONNOR AND ROSE STARS!!!!!!!!