Wedding Shenanigans, Alpha Males & Sin City || Mini Reviews

TWO WEDDING CRASHERS by MEGHAN QUINN

★★★★

“Happily ever after. That's what my world revolves around and yet, I struggle to find one myself.”

Two Wedding Crashers is the second book in the Dating by Numbers series and by far Meghan Quinn's most hilarious book to date. Fair warning, don't read this book while consuming any foods or liquids because you might choke from laughing too much. I should also like to note that while this book can be read as a standalone, I still suggest picking up the first book in this series because you're not gonna wanna miss out on the shenanigans in that book.

Two Wedding Crashers is a romance about two people who've been guarded from love for so long that once it's standing in front of them, they're not quite sure what to do next. I was a little hesitant going into this book because truth be told, I wasn't a big fan of Beck Wilder's character in Three Blind Dates. He was kind of a playboy with a secret past and I thought he would continue to play games in this sequel, but he surprised me so much! I ended up falling so hard for Beck and I think once I got a better understanding for why he was so guarded, I let his previous behavior slide. He is a genuine softie and I loved how he was willing to do whatever to takes to win Rylee's heart. While I loved Beck, it took me a really long time to feel the same way about Rylee Ryan. She's a hilarious character and I loved that she was a romance writer, but I just couldn't connect with until the end. I was also expecting her secret to be a little more...dramatic, considering the way she was acting and all. 

I wanna give some love to the secondary characters in this book. Beck and Rylee's friends are a riot and there were times I couldn't breathe because I was laughing too hard from their dialogue. I am dying, and I mean DYING to read the next book in this series. I need to know how the fuck Hayden became someone's baby daddy and I'm also hoping to catch up with the boys from the Binghampton series.

ALPHAS LIKE US by KRISTA & BECCA RITCHIE

★★★½

“I know and he knows that what we share is greater and stronger than whatever the world has to throw at us. We won't end here.”

The Like Us series and I got off on a rocky start but along the way the series has somewhat grown on me. I'm not completely sold on the series yet, but I'm still sticking around to see what happens to the mini Hales, Cobalts and Meadows. Also, I'm a sucker for drama and I swear this series is just like Keeping Up with the Kardashians but in book form.  

Alphas Like Us picks up right where Lovers Like Us left off as Moffy and Farrow's relationship is now out in the public eye and everyone and they mama wants to throw in their two cents about it. I'm just gonna get this out of the way and say that the main reason why I'm still not loving this series is because of Moffy. I've come to accept that our personalities are polar opposites and we will never connect. However, I am starting to like Farrow more. I think he's good for Moffy's ego. He grounds him and it's why they make a good match. 

Besides the nosy ass public getting in between Moffy and Farrow's relationship, we see Farrow making tough decisions about his future and what career path he wants to take. I wish we could've focused more on that aspect of the story instead of all the fame drama. I loved the fact that we got see more of the younger kids in this book! They are so freakin' sassy, it was adorable! So Moffy and Farrow's love story has come to an end (for now) and I'm so ready to move on the Jane's book. I've been waiting over a year for Jane's book so it better live up to all my expectations! 

SIN WITH ME by J.A. HUSS & JONATHAN MCCLAIN

★★★

“He is everything I need tonight. Like...salvation. He's my fucking salvation.”

I am a huge fan of J.A. Huss' dark romances but I wasn't quite sure what to expect with her newest release. Collaborations are always a hit or miss with me and while I'm willing to give new-to-me authors the benefit of the doubt, sometimes I just can't connect with their way of storytelling.

Sin With Me is an erotica romance about two broken souls trying to find their way in the city of sin. Tyler is haunted by demons from the past and he just wishes he could fix all his past mistakes. Maddie is a stripper who can't seem to get her life together. The pair end up meeting one night and their lives are forever changed. 

The main reason why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I would've liked is because I wasn't a fan of McClain's writing. It was a bit over the top and all the capitalization in the dialogue was just unnecessary. The plot was all over the place and it's because of all the secrets that both Tyler and Maddie are hiding but I felt like things could've gone smoother. The romance isn't really a romance just yet, it's just all lust right now but considering there are three more books to go, I'm sure things will start to develop more between these two in the next book. I'm still going to pick up the sequel because that cliffhanger has me hooked and I need to know what is going to happen next!

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Pennies - Book Review

Title: Pennies

Author: Pepper Winters

Publication Date: July 18, 2016

My Rating: ★★★★.75

"I'm not the hero in this story, girl. You'd do best to remember that."

Once upon a time, I was an eighteen year old psychology student.
Now, I’m a man’s property.
Stolen and sold, I’ve been decorated in bruises since the day my world changed two years ago.
I suffer in silence, I crave freedom, but I never break.
I can’t.
Until he arrives.
Elder Prest, the only man to look at me and see me. The only man more ruthless than my owner.
He wants me for reasons I don’t understand.
He claims me for one night then leaves and never looks back.
Until he returns.
And life becomes much more complicated.

Links: 

|| Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Goodreads || 



Tasmin died the night she was kidnapped

Sold into sex slavery and now known as Pimlico, she struggles to come to terms with her new life that she didn't choose. After shes purchased by a vile, horrible man she has to come to terms with even worse.

So much is taken from her by him without her permission, even more is taken by his friends without her permission

Even though so much is taken from her she makes a vow to hold on to the one thing he can never get. Her voice.

 Pim makes a vow that no matter what vile things happen to her she'll hold on to her voice and never speak again. At first this is just a promise she makes to remain stubborn and anger her captor, but after a few years go by, it's the only thing that keeps her sanity. In the never ending cycle of abuse and neglect keeping her words inside is what keeps her holding on by a fine thread. 

Enter Elder Prest. The mysterious man comes and shakes things up for Pim in the best and worst ways. She doesn't know how to take him, and he feels the same about her. She knows enough in her new life to know that she can never trust people so easily ever again. Yet, that tends to be somewhat hard with him. 

Elder isn't a good man. He'll tell you himself. When he meets Pim he's only around to conduct business, nothing more, nothing less. But for some reason he's drawn to the captive girl with the weak body, and desolate look in her eyes. He can have any woman he wants with a snap of his fingers, a women who isn't half dead and silent. But for some reason she intrigues him in the worst way.

The events that happen when these two meet are more than even they could imagine, but is that a good thing or not?

Pepper Winters is an authors that is known for creating some of the best dark romances around.. I've had plenty of her books on my tbr, and on my kindle for the longest now, and I finally decided the other week that it was time to crack open one of her books. I now want to slap myself for waiting so long to do so!! Her writing is darkly good, and I was hooked from the very first page!! I had to stop a few times to just take in the story because it was hard to take in one go at times, and because I just wanted to absorb her words. 

Now be warned that this is a dark romance and it's not pretty or easy to take in at times. If you're already a fan of the dark reads then you'll probably be prepared and ready to dive into this one. If you're not use to reading darker books then you should definitely proceed with caution or read spoiler reviews to gauge your comfort levels.

I myself don't mind dark reads if they're done well. I feel like lately a lot of "dark" romances are just waaaayyyy to OTT and not in a good way. The stories either read super cheesy and too try hard, or they're just entirely too damn much. It's like a lot of authors are trying to "outdark" one another by one upping everything they write. If one author does one OTT, the next has to go completely left and top that for whatever reason, and if you can't tell this trend really annoys me. Sorry not sorry but that's how I feel about a majority of things in the genre. I say all of this to say that I never once got that vibe with this book. Even though the book was dark and maybe hard to read at times there was still something, dare I say hauntingly beautiful about the writing. You can tell that a lot of thought, planning, and care went into this story to make it something that can still be fulfilling for the reader. 

The characterization in this book was so spot on, I hated the obvious evil character, and I loved reading about Pim. She had this resiliency even in her situation and even though she was in some bad shit I still rooted for her to get something better. Her story broke my heart, and she definitely didn't deserve everything thrown her way.

Elder was such a mystery and I didn't know if I should root for him or try to beat him up lol. I definitely feel that as a reader we feel the same emotions towards him that Pim did, and I think that makes the story even more interesting to read.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of the series, and if I'm not mistaken the last book recently released which means I can binge and get my life!! After that ending in this book I have soooooo many questions regarding Pim and if there's any more reasons of how she got in her situation, and of course more about Elder. I think this series is shaping up to be something really great so I'm super pumped to see how it all unravels!! And I definitely need to get on to more of Winters' other books because I've heard nothing but amazing things!!

If you're a dark romance lover looking for your next fix and have yet to try out Pepper Winters, or if you're a fan and just haven't started this series yet then you should definitely hop on!! I think Pennies is a solid start to a dark, yet highly addicting series that will keep everyone hooked from beginning to end!!

  

Act Your Age || Book Review

Title: Act Your Age

Author: Eve Dangerfield

Publication Date: September 27, 2017

Publisher: BookBaby
Links: Goodreads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble 

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis via Goodreads: Just because Kate ‘Middleton’ McGrath, wants a man to call ‘daddy’ in bed doesn’t mean— 
Oh, you stopped reading. Cool.
Kate gets it. Kinks aren’t for everyone. Hell, they’re probably not for Mr. Henderson, her grumpaholic boss. She really shouldn’t have crush on him, but the man is just so goddamn stern. Sure, a lot of that comes down to ‘being her boss,’ but still, it feels like there might be something there.
Tyler Henderson is a golden boy who’s lost his shine. He’s old, his dream career is over, his fiancée’s left him. Now all the former firefighter can do is try and bury his troubles in paperwork and hard liquor. He says ‘try’ because he can't get Middleton out of his head long enough to wallow properly. He’s not going anywhere near the girl. HR issues aside, he’s done with sweetness and things don’t come sweeter than a cupcake-baking engineer who knits her own hats.
A case of mistaken identity causes Kate and Ty’s attraction to give way to blistering sex. They have more in common—and more to lose—than either of them realized. When it comes to unreasonable attraction you can rarely change your mind but can you act your age?

I'm pretty sure I sound like a broken record right now considering majority of the reviews for this book started out in a similar manner, but "the daddy kink" is just not a kink for me. I'll admit that when I first heard about daddy romances, my curiosity was piqued. But after having read a few of these romances, I instantly became annoyed with their "over the top" plots and juvenile heroines. I swore I would never read another daddy kink book after that, but then reviews for Act Your Age started popping up and once again my curiosity got the best of me. I swear my curious reading habits will get me into trouble one of these days...

Forty-five year old Tyler Henderson was once a man who had it all: a job doing what he loved and a fiancée who he was going to spend the rest of his life with. Then everything falls apart and the man who once had it all has now hit a road block. In walks Kate McGrath and once again Tyler's world is turned upside down because he can't get Kate out of his head. He can't help but want her, despite the fact that he's twice her age. But when a night out leads to something more, will Kate and Tyler decide to explore their fantasies together or will fear keep them from taking things to the next level?

One of the things I loved most about this book was the writing. I've heard great things about Dangerfield's writing from other blogger friends and it's the main reason why I kept on reading. There's this bluntness to her writing and her dialogue that I've never experienced before and I just couldn't put my eReader down, despite the fact that this book pushed me out of my comfort zone. Also, I am totally in love with Aussie slang! I have no idea what some of these characters were saying half the time but it sounded sassy so I rolled with it. 

I love, love, love Kate McGrath. Kate is quirky, friendly, relatable and I don't think it's possible to hate her at all. She comes off as the girl-next-door type, but once you get to know her you realize that she's anything but. She's had a difficult childhood as she was the youngest and her parents never really showed her affection. She also has ADHD but she doesn't let her define her or hold her back from being successful in a male-dominated work force. Making friends and letting people in has always been hard for her and I really loved seeing her grow and push herself to open up more. I especially loved her boldness once she finally let that side show. Kate surprised me in more ways than one and she's definitely one of my favorite female leads for this year. Then we have Tyler Henderson. *cue eye-roll* I did not like Tyler at all when I first read his POV and I pretty much hated him for about 70% of this book. He's kind of a douche bag, for a lack of a better word, and I thought he was a bit full of himself. I mean, what guy refuses to go down on a girl but expects her to go down on him?! Yes there are valid reasons for Tyler's behavior, but I still thought he was being an ass. Luckily, he managed to turn things around and we find that Tyler does have a sweet side to him and once he actually started showing that side, I began to warm up to him.  

So let's talk about the daddy role playing and the romance. I gotta say, I think Dangerfield did an amazing job at exploring the daddy fetish and realistically portraying it. She gives it to us straight, no fluffy bullshit like with those other daddy romances. She explains the rules, discusses limits and even goes about exploring other fetishes as well which I liked. There is role playing between Tyler and Kate and I'll just say what it is: stepfather/stepdaughter role play. I know for some this may be a turn-off, but quite frankly these are two consenting adults exploring their fetishes together and I didn't see a problem with it. As for the romance itself, it's a slow-burn. These two have a number of issues they have to work out before they find their happily-ever-after but I was totally rooting for these two to end up together by the end. The angst is worth it, I promise!

Act Your Age was a surprising read and refreshing take on your typical daddy romance. Will I read more daddy kink books in the future? HELL NO. I may have enjoyed this book, but I'm still not a fan of this kink. If Eve Dangerfield wrote another daddy romance in the distant future would I read it? MAYBE, it honestly depends on my mood. Would I recommend this book to other romance readers? YES, but only if you think you can handle it.

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