Brooke’s Reviews

♥Sweet Surrendering-by Chelsea M. Cameron♥

November 5, 2013 by Brooke True Story Book Blog

She’s his boss. He doesn’t care. This office isn’t big enough for the two of them…

When Rory Clarke ends up hiring the guy she spent one steamy night with to be her administrative assistant, she’s determined to keep things professional.

Lucas Blaine has other plans for her. He wants Rory, and it’s hard to resist his stunning blue eyes, chin dimple and the way he fills out a suit. Everywhere she looks, there he is, giving her a panty-melting smile and pulling her away for the most amazing (and satisfying) sex she’s ever had in her life.

What starts off as one sexual encounter turns into multiple trysts in and out of the office and the lines she’d tried to draw so carefully are blurring. But the closer they get, the more Rory realizes that there are things about Lucas she doesn’t know, things he’s hiding from her. She’ll have to decide if she can surrender to her feelings or get out while she still can.

Sweet Surrendering by Chelsea M. Cameron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, I fell in love with Chelsea Cameron’s writing after reading My Favorite Mistake and that hasn’t changed at all upon finishing Sweet Surrendering.

This book is a LOT of things. Including: Fun, witty, sexy, emotional, and down right hot. The combination of all those things are what make this book and why I liked at as much as I did. My only issue with this book, and the reason it is not a 4.5-5 kisses book for me, was the editing. I know, most people hate seeing that in a review but honestly, there were enough errors (run-on sentences, grammar, punctuation, etc.) that at times, took away from the story. At first I was able to look past them but after seeing one after another it was hard to focus on the plot.

With that said, had the lack of editing been minimal, I would have rated this higher. The story line is great, the character development was good, and the overall feel of the book was definitely right up my alley. I honestly hate giving low-ish ratings to authors I love, but if there is one thing I pride our blog on, it’s honesty.

Okay, now that the hard part of the way let’s get down to the fun stuff. What I did like about this book.

Rory Clarke-Vice President of her father’s company and she won’t let anyone undermine how hard she worked, and still works, to get that title. Just because she is a Daddy’s Girl doesn’t mean this position was handed to her. She isn’t afraid to tell you that either. Rory might be the serious businesswoman but the girl knows how to let loose. She is spunky and honestly, I want to be her best friend. That’s right, lookout Sloane, I am moving in and taking over!

Wait, actually, I think I want to be BFF’s with Sloane. The girl can cook, she takes amazing care of you, she is 100% supportive, and she is more fashionable than anyone I know.

That’s right. I was a goddamn professional. No guys with stormy eyes and a fuck me smile and a magic tongue was going to stand in the way of that. Because I was a goddamn professional.

So, if you have read the synopsis then you know that is an “office romance” if you will. Rory hires an assistant…well, “hires” isn’t really the right word. The guy isn’t willing to take no for an answer. Which turns out to be a common thing with him.

Who is the “him”? Lucah “Lucas” Blaine. Want me to wrap Lucas up in three words? Okay…mother.fucking.sexy! Not just his looks either. Everything about this man is sexy. He is the definition of what turns women on. No one is immune to Lucas. Not even the “goddamn professional” Rory Clarke.

Damn him. Damn all good looking guys and their chin dimples and well-proportioned muscles and their hair that you want to touch so bad you can barely sit still. Damn them all to the fiery pits of hell.

I could feel the heat between Rory and Lucas from day one. From that very first encounter in the lobby of her office. His cocky persona might have pissed her off at first but I’ll be damned if it didn’t turn me on. The man is just that fucking amazing.

Oh, fuck me. Again. His eyes were half-closed, his hair falling in front of them. And his voice. Oh, his voice touched me in places that a voice shouldn’t have access to.

Okay, so do you remember me saying that this book was fun? Oh, well you have no idea until you read it. I laughed a lot while reading Sweet Surrendering. Some of the shit that came out of Rory’s mouth or went through her head had me cracking up.

I am the master of hand jobs. My hands are just that fantastic when a penis is placed in one of them. I could teach a damn class on this. Probably because my blow job skills left a little to be desired. I couldn’t help it if I had a gag reflex.

Now, on to the hot and steamy aspect. Wow. Just wow. Chelsea Cameron can sure write some steam. And when it comes to writing hot desk sex…well holy Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Moses and his donkey…the woman blows it away. I love inappropriate office sexual relations. I feel like I need to experience this. Just once…okay maybe more than once but still, it needs to happen. Anyone know a hot businessman that can fulfill a girls fantasy of hot desk sex? (That was a rhetorical question…I’m married ;)).

He looked up and grinned at me and I swear I wanted to fuck that smile. Yes, I know that’s not possible. I mean, he did fuck me with his mouth, but this was something different.

So do you remember me mentioning that this book had emotion and lots of it? Well it does! It is a romance novel after all. It can’t just be about amazing handjobs, mind-blowing office sex, and goddamn professionals.

Don’t worry though, it wasn’t the sad, weepy, teary kind of emotion. It was the happy, sappy, lovey, dovey kind. The kind that leaves your heart content and that god awful goofy grin on your face.

Yeah, I have to admit, even with all the super-hot sex, Rory and Lucas are kinda cute. Okay, A LOT cute. I want to spend a day with them, basking in their happy, sappy, lovey, dovey life and then go home and lay in bed with a pint of peanut butter chip ice cream and watch a bunch of dumb rom-coms that I don’t even enjoy while I secretly plot to steal Lucas away and keep him to myself…forever.

“I don’t just want nights, Sunshine.” He put the fork down and continued to look at me with such intensity it was almost hard to look back. “I don’t want just nights. I want mornings. And mid-mornings and late mornings and noons and afternoons and evenings and everything in between. Sunrises, and sunsets, and twilight. I want it all.”…..”I want to be with you. Definitions and everything. I want to call you mine.”

Awwwwwww! See!

Oh, and don’t let the goddamn professional fool you. She’s a softy. She really is.

I loved him. Over the moon, past the stars, couldn’t breathe, smiled whenever I thought about him, couldn’t keep my hands off him, pictured a wedding and ginger babies and growing old and rocking chairs, love. He drove me crazy, made me laugh, and understood me in a way that few people did. I fucking loved him and I wanted everyone to know it…”

One of my favorite things about this book was what I would like to call

Love According To Rory

Love with Lucah was something I couldn’t control, and something I didn’t want to control. Loving him was letting go. Surrendering.

Well, I guess it’s time to wrap this up. All in all, good book. Great even if you take away the editing issues. I urge any and all readers to go out and pick this one up. I am, and will forever be, a Chelsea M. Cameron fan.

As always I will leave you with some more of my favorite quotes!

“You’re not having sex with anyone else, are you?”

“No, Sunshine. I would rather wake up with you than go to bed with anyone else.”

“ We don’t have to actually do anything. Just make sure they sit next to each other. The God of Love will do the rest.”

“The God of Love? We talking the Greek or Roman one?”

“The American one. Alcohol.”

All because of Lucas Blaine and his stupid magical tongue and lovely penis.

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Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world’s worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting (this one time, she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman). She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.

Her New Adult Contemporary Romance titles include My Favorite Mistake, which has been bought by Harlequin along with a sequel, Deeper We Fall and Faster We Burn (April 20, 2013)

Her Young Adult books include Nocturnal, Nightmare and Neither, the first three books in The Noctalis Chronicles. The fourth and final book, Neverend will be out in 2013. Whisper, the first in The Whisper Trilogy is also available, with the second book in the series, Silence and the final book, LIsten coming out in 2014.

Website: http://www.chelseamcameron.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chel_c_cam

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chelsea-M-Cameron-Official-Author-Page/304422529610919

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5752359.Chelsea_M_Cameron

♦Chasing Dreams-by Nicole Edwards♦

October 18, 2013 by Brooke True Story Book Blog

Cooper Krenshaw knows what it’s like to feel the bright lights upon him, the sound of the crowd roaring when he walks on stage; after all, he happens to be one of the biggest names in country music at the moment. And he has knowingly just dropped off the grid. The first decision he has made on his own in quite some time. Cooper only thought he was looking for a challenge when he walked off of that concert stage in Chicago. After finding himself in Devil’s Bend, Texas, he soon realizes that the dream he’s been chasing might not be the one he was after all along.

Now he’s found himself not only starting over in a new town, but he’s pretty sure he’s met the toughest challenge of his life… she just happens to be an angel in blue jeans.

Tessa Donovan hasn’t been the best of friends with Fate for quite some time now. Owning and operating The Rusty Nail, a small bar in her hometown of Devil’s Bend, has been enough to keep her going through the motions of her life. But it’s the only thing she’s got. After losing her husband fifteen short months after they were married, Tessa has spent the last four years chasing dreams in order to maintain her sanity. Only those dreams are soon ripped right out of her grasp by a sexy country music star who claims he descended on her small town by accident.

Coincidence? Or has Fate stepped in once again? Whatever the case, Tessa knows the handsome cowboy might get to overtake her dreams, but she’s bound and determined that he won’t take her heart.

brookes review ts

Chasing Dreams by Nicole Edwards

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s official…I am moving to Texas. I just can’t handle it anymore. I don’t care if they are fictional or not but damn all these hot country guys that are in Nicole’s books. I feel like there must be something in the water down there. There has to be for all these tall, charming, sexy, country boys to be born and bred Texans.

But see, I would be killing two birds with one stone by moving to Texas. One, I would make my bestie (who just happens to be a San Antonian) very happy. And Two, I would get to indulge in all the hot cowboys. I am convinced that there are Cooper Krenshaw’s, Dalton Calhoun’s, Walker brothers, McCoy’s…and oh the list goes on and on.

Moral of the story…Nicole Edwards can write one AMAZING country boy. Not only that, she makes you experience all the feeling and emotions of the characters perfectly in sync with them. I fell in love with Nicole’s writing back when I read the Club Destiny novels and even more with her Alluring Indulgence novels.

Now, those series are considered erotica, and Chasing Dreams is actually a Contemporary Romance novel. But let me state this hear and now. I feel NO differently about this book than I do her others. I love it just as much…hell, maybe even more. You get the angst, the emotion, the whole package….including the super-hot, super-steamy, sex!! So don’t go getting yourself all riled up with that Contemporary Romance description because I promise you, Nicole Edwards will NEVER ever be lacking in the sex scene aspect.

Let’s get down to it, shall we?

Tessa Donovan

Tessa is the middle child, with two brothers-Adam and Jack. (pssst…I already have a major crush on Jack..I’m sorry but he drinks SoCo…we already have one thing in common). Tessa is also the owner, along with Adam, of The Rusty Nail. Around four years ago, Tessa lost her husband, who was a police officer, and Tessa is sort of in that phase where she isn’t really looking to settle down at all.

But, her world is turned upside down when very sexy, very famous Cooper Krenshaw comes to Devil’s Bend.

…The guy was probably used to getting any woman he wanted, so the come hither look he’d perfected probably got him pretty far in life.
Too bad for him, she wasn’t interested.
Damn it.
She was so interested her body was doing crazy things.

Cooper Krenshaw

So, Cooper is a famous country singer that is to the point where he’s kind of tired being in the limelight. He’s ready to settle down, and not necessarily with a woman, but just settle down in general. In a place that he can call home without the annoyance of the media and his major pain in the ass manager.

Stardom had its downside and one of them was the loneliness that came along with it.

So there is obvious attraction between Tessa and Cooper but typical Tessa, she is trying to ignore it. She puts on this façade that all the wants is sex, which is totally untrue, because in all honesty, Tessa is afraid to get too close to someone. She lives with this crazy idea that all things good things are temporary and have an expiration date.

“I’m not looking for one night, Tessa.”
“I’m not looking for forever, cowboy.”

It doesn’t take long for Tessa and Cooper to submit to the attraction that is between them. Let me tell you, this was where I was a happy, happy girl! I love that moment when two characters finally give and come to terms with the fact that the attraction they feel for each other isn’t going anywhere so why deny yourself any longer?

Kissing him was like coming home for the first time in years.

Sparks…there are sparks between these two. I can’t even describe it. It is so different than Nicole’s other books and I just absolutely love it.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he asked when they both came up for air a few minutes later. “What you’ve done to me since the first time I laid eyes on you?”

I mentioned angst, above. There is definitely angst in this book. For the first time EVER, Nicole Edwards made me cry while reading one of her books. Yes, tears! And multiple times, too.

Tessa knew without a doubt, no matter how hard she fought and pleaded with her heart, Cooper was going to be the next man to break her. It was inevitable.

And does he ever. *sigh I won’t give anything away, But, yeah…this was a tough one to get through at times. I LOVED these characters. When they were hurting, I was hurting. I feel like I connected with Cooper and Tessa on an entirely different level than I have with Nicole’s other characters. And that’s saying something because I am hardcore in
love
with Travis Walker.

There were so many things I loved about this book. When I wasn’t crying and being emotional of course. Well hell, even then I loved it. But anyway, one of things I love about this book was how fun it was at times. That’s one thing I really enjoy about Nicole’s books. She makes them fun and sexy all at the same time without making it cheesy.

“What are you doing?” she asked when he closed the back door and locked it.
“Keeping your brother out. I figure if he comes back, this way he won’t interrupt. Lord knows what he’ll do when he hears you screaming.”
Tessa laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. “You plan to make me scream, cowboy?”
“More than once, darlin’. More than once.”

I also said this book was emotional, did I not? The ups and downs of Chasing Dreams was SO worth it. I can’t even begin to break down all the emotions I went through while reading this book. This is such an amazing love story the delves into things like trust, loss, betrayal, sacrifice, and so much more.

Overall, great book. One of my favorite by Nicole so far. I am looking forward to reading more in the Devil’s Bend series.

Like always, I will leave you with some of my favorite quotes.

Cooper’s world shifted on its axis. He loved this woman. Heart and soul.

Tessa, I don’t even know how to say the words. I spend my days playing songs about love, but I can’t figure out how to express what I feel for you. It’s so much more than love.”

“…I was chasing a dream, but little did I know that what I had set out for wasn’t what I thought it was. Building this,” he glanced around and then back to her face, “it’s what got me here. It all comes down to you. You’re my dream, Tessa. You’re everything I’ve wanted, everything I’ve prayed for.”

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Nicole lives in Texas with her husband, Colt, three kids and four dogs. It’s quite the household and most of the time you’ll find her locked away in her office… writing. When she’s not, you’ll likely find her reading, swimming, or hanging out in the yard with the dogs, doing her best to keep them in line. (And no, it doesn’t usually work)

Ever want to let that other part of you loose? The part that has secret desires and taboo fantasies? Well, that’s what brought about Nicole Edwards. She’s an alter ego. In truth, she’s a full-fledged part of me. The secret part made up of sinfully hot desires and erotic thoughts. Get to know how Nicole’s naughty mind works by checking out her books!

About me… hmmm…

Ok, I’ve been asked to provide a little bit of “real” information about myself. That’s harder to do than you think it is, especially for someone who has difficulty talking about themselves. 😉 But, here goes…

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a kid, I loved creative writing and as I got older, I got acquainted with those voices in my head and that led to putting my stories on paper. And now, here I am all these years later, spending my days doing what I love most. I decided to give myself over to writing full time in 2012 and I haven’t looked back. I spent nearly 13 years in the corporate world and I have to say, this is a bit of a change (just a little) and I am loving every second of it.

I live in Texas with my husband and three amazing kids and our four beloved dogs. If I’m not writing, I’m usually reading. I devour everything I can get my hands on. I love romance of any type and being an Indie author myself, I’m always looking for new Indies to support. I haven’t always been into reading, but about eleven years ago, I picked up a book – I’m pretty sure it was by Nora Roberts – and from there, I haven’t stopped. Before I began writing full time, and my characters started taking up so much of my time, I was reading about 200 books a year. That has dwindled somewhat, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read.

An interesting fact… I don’t watch television – aside from the occasional news anyway. I will go see a movie or two rarely, but for the most part, I get all of my entertainment from a book. Some of my favorite authors include J.R. Ward, Suzanne Brockmann, Lora Leigh, Jane Rylon, Lori Foster, and Jaci Burton just to name a few.

Website www.NicEdwardsAuthor.com

twitter username @NicoleEAuthor

Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/Author.Nicole.Edwards

Goodreads Page http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4318269.Nicole_Edwards

~Love and Lists by Tara Sivec Blog Tour – Character Interview, Reviews & Giveaway!~

October 8, 2013 by Brooke True Story Book Blog

Title: Love & Lists (Chocoholics #1)

Author: Tara Sivec

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Love and Lists is the first book in the Chocolate Lovers spinoff Chocoholics: The foulmouthed offspring tell their stories.

Twenty-five-year-old Gavin Ellis has always had the love and support of his family ever since he was a little boy and couldn’t stop talking about his penis. He’s also always had their unsolicited advice and uncanny knack of embarrassing him at all costs. Now that he’s an adult and trying to convince the love of his life to love him back, things haven’t changed very much from when he was younger.

When Gavin’s best friend Tyler suggests he make a todo list of items that will ensure he wins the girl, Gavin is onehundredpercent on board: after a few six packs.

After puking in the shrubs, a bad experience with Viagra, a SexEd course gone wrong, and a slew of other mishaps courtesy of his family and friends, Gavin is pretty sure this list will be the death of him.

Sometimes, trying to make someone love you with a list isn’t always the best idea. Especially when “Show her your penis” is the first “todo” item…

What you are about to read might go down in True Story history as one of the most epic interviews. Ever. You’ve been warned. 🙂

~Good by S. Walden Blog Tour – Exclusive Alternate POV, Reviews & Givaway~

October 2, 2013 by Brooke True Story Book Blog

Cadence Miller is a good girl. She just happens to make one terrible mistake her junior year in high school which costs her ten months in juvenile detention. Now a senior, she’s lost everything: her best friend, the trust of her parents, driving privileges, Internet access. It’s a lonely existence.

But there is one bright spot: Mark Connelly, her very cute, very off-limits 28-year-old calculus teacher. She falls hard for him—a ridiculous schoolgirl crush headed nowhere. She can’t help it. He’s the only good thing at Crestview High. She doesn’t expect him to reciprocate her feelings. How inappropriate, right? But he does. And he shows her.

And that’s when her life goes from bad to good.