Die Trying by Nicholas Ryan (Guest Spot & Excerpt)

Die Trying

Nicholas Ryan

Trapped amidst the horror of the zombie apocalypse, three men hear the sound of a helicopter overhead and know it represents their last desperate hope to survive the terror and reach safety.

But survival comes at a cost - and the undead hordes that ravage the world are not the only lurking evil the men must face.

But for Mitch Logan, his brother, Jed, and their friend, Clinton Harrigan, there is no choice.

They must fight to survive - or Die Trying.

Zombies!! You know I love them!!  Here's a new novel for you, and I have an excerpt just for you so you can be as excited as me!

Review: Hope Flames by Jaci Burton

Title: Hope Flames
Series: Hope #1
Author: Jaci Burton
Published: January 7, 2013 - Berkley
Format: Egalley - Thank you!

Thirty-two and finally setting up her veterinary practice in the town she once called home, Emma Burnett is on her own and loving it. Independent and driven, she's not letting any man get in the way of her dreams. Not again.

That's fine with Luke McCormack. Divorced and hardly lacking in female company when he needs it, he's devoted to the only faithful companion in his life--his police dog. Still, there's something about Emma he can't shake.

When a series of local break-ins leaves Emma vulnerable, she seeks help from the first man to spark her desire in years. And now they're giving each other something they thought they'd lost forever...hope

This was my first book by Jaci Burton, and I enjoyed it. I didn’t quite love it though. Overall, though, it felt a bit predictable and it just felt like déjà vu. I liked the characters, and the storyline…but it just didn’t excite me as much as I had hoped it would.

Review: Blue Lines by Toni Aleo

Title: Blue Lines
Series: Assassins #4
Author: Toni Aleo
Published: December 9, 2013 - Loveswept RandomHouse
Format: Egalley - Thank you Loveswept!

Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lies behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.

Well, this book was not only the first I’ve read in the Assassins series, and it was also my first from author Toni Aleo. I had sort of an odd experience with this book. I mostly hated the hero, Erik, for about 99% of the story, but I really enjoyed the story itself. That’s a kind of a weird experience for me. Let me explain.

Review: Come To Me Quietly by AL Jackson

Title: Come To Me Quietly
Series: Closer To You, #1
Author: AL Jackson
Published: January 7, 2013 NAL Trade
Format: EGalley, Penguin, Berkley, NAL - Thank you!

Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside.

Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain.

Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own.

Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate.

Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.

Come To Me Quietly by AL Jackson blew me the hell away. I read this book in one day, I couldn’t – no, I wouldn’t put it down. This story was high impact, and every minute of it had me sitting with rapt attention.

Promo/Giveaway: Sex Piston by Jamie Begley

Sex Piston

Jamie Begley

Sex Piston wasn’t about to apologize to anyone for her bitch attitude and certainly not the President of The Blue Horsemen, Stud. If he thinks he’s going to be able to control her and her crew then he has another thing coming. A lapse in judgment has him thinking that he’s won this battle of the sexes but a one-night stand isn’t about to bring this woman to heel.

Stud has to prove himself as the new President of the Destructors, and Sex Piston and her crew’s attitude isn’t helping. If he has to sacrifice his body to tame the bitch then that’s exactly what he’s going to do even if it means losing his heart in the battle.

Hey everyone!  Welcome to a great big snowy Monday here in the midwest!  I hope everyone is indoors and warm and safe...or if you are in a warm place, I hope you are outside enjoying the rays! Hope you enjoy this promo for Sex Piston by Jamie Begley, and good luck on the giveaway!  This book sounds like a doozie!

*Liz

Review: 100 Days in Deadland by Rachel Aukes

Title: 100 Days In Deadland
Series: Deadland #1
Author: Rachel Aukes
Published: August 1st 2013 by Surprisingly Adequate Publishing

Format: ebook provided for review

A Journey Through Dante's Inferno with a Shambling Twist...

The world ended on a Thursday.

In one day, the world succumbed to a pestilence that decimated the living. In its place rose a new species: vicious, gruesome, wandering monsters with an insatiable hunger for the living. There is no government, no shelter.

Still in her twenties, Cash has watched her friends die, only to walk again. An office worker with few survival skills, she joins up with Clutch, a grizzled Army veteran with PTSD. Together, they flee the city and struggle through the nine circles of hell, with nothing but Clutch’s military experience and Cash’s determination to live. As they fight to survive in the zombie inferno, they quickly discover that nowhere is safe from the undead… or the living.

This is the beginning after the end.

(100 Days in Deadland is a modern remake of Dante's Inferno, the classic tale on the horrors of hell... zombie apocalypse style!)

I’ve read a lot of zombie books. I love them. What continually surprises me is how they are all so different. You’d think they’d end up the same, but nope – there are countless ways for these stories to go. Rachel Aukes really ups the ante with 100 Days in Deadland.

Review: The Inheritance Parts 3&4 by Olivia Mayfield

Title: The Inheritance

Series: Part 3 - The Betrayal
Author: Olivia Mayfield
Published: October 29, 2013 - Berkley Intermix
Format: Egalley received for review

Shaken to the core by her latest discovery, Maggie seeks solace in the arms of an eager Andrew, and an evening of consoling turns into a night of reckless passion. Though Maggie’s investigation into Cassandra’s vanishing is meeting with little success, her love life finally seems to be going right. The more she learns about Andrew, the more Maggie begins to believe that she let the wrong guy get away.

But as their relationship turns from a one night stand into a more serious fling, Maggie realizes that Andrew might be hiding secrets of his own—secrets that make her wonder if his seduction hides ulterior motives.

 Title: The Inheritance
Series: Part 4 The Secret
Author: Olivia Mayfield
Published: November 5, 2013 - Berkley Intermix
Format: Egalley received for review

Unsure what side Andrew is on, Maggie decides to avoid him for a few days, continuing her investigation on her own. Unfortunately, talking with the private investigator that her family hired eight years ago doesn’t get her any closer to the truth. Maggie has a feeling that she’s missing something big, something about the party, but the pieces just aren’t falling into place.

To make matters worse, after Maggie catches Bethany and Robert in a compromising position, she’s even more determined to solve the case before the other contestants can. But when Andrew calls, asking to see Maggie one more time so he can come clean, he might be too hard to resist…

This series is really getting interesting – but it’s really hard to review just one installment at a time, so today I bring you parts three and four. It’s really starting to heat up – in all senses of the word.

Playlist Day 2 - A Little Too Much by Lisa Desrochers

A Little Too Much

Lisa Desrochers

In the follow-up to Lisa Desrochers’ explosive New Adult novel A Little too Far, Alessandro Moretti must face the life he escaped and the girl he loved and left behind.

Twenty-two year old Hilary McIntyre would like nothing more than to forget her past. As a teenager abandoned to the system, she faced some pretty dark times. But now that’s all behind her. Hilary has her life on track, and there’s no way she’ll head back down that road again.

Until Alessandro Moretti—the one person who can make her remember—shows up on her doorstep. He’s even more devastatingly gorgeous than before, and he’s much too close for comfort. Worse, he sees right through the walls she’s built over these last eight years, right into her heart and the secrets she’s guarding.

As Hilary finds herself falling back into love with the man who, as a boy both saved and destroyed her, she must decide. Past or future? Truth or lies?

Hey everyone!  Welcome to 2014!  I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season!

So today I have a playlist post for A Little Too Much by Lisa Desrochers.  Hope you like it!