New Releases in Romance - Week of April 27, 2014

Okay...Okay...So I went a little overboard this week.  But seriously, look at all these awesome books!  No wonder I can't keep up with  my TBR shelf!!!!

Paranormal
      


Historical
      


Contemporary
     


Suspense
     

Review: A Risk Worth Taking by Laura Landon

Title: A Risk Worth Taking

Author: Laura Landon
Source: Amazon Vine
Genre: Historical Fiction, Victorian
Length: Novel
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Rating - 3
Sexual - 3

Griffin Blackmoor blames himself for the tragic accident that claimed his wife and young
son. Riddled with guilt, he prays that during the Crimean War an enemy’s bullet will end the consuming torture he can’t escape. Instead, that bullet finds his best friend. Now there isn’t enough whiskey in England to make him forget all the people who have died because of him. But before he can drown himself in an endless sea of liquor, he must keep the promise he made his dying friend. Except that promise is sure to risk an innocent woman’s life—and his own battered heart.

When her brother’s sudden death leaves her destitute, Lady Anne Carmichael knows she must marry. Although her dark beauty earns her the attention of London’s most eligible bachelors, only one man can stir her soul with his kisses. Griffin Blackmoor is everything she swore she never wanted. So why does his love feel like exactly what she needs?

A Risk Worth Taking had everything it needed to be an amazin book, but it just didn't quite make it.  Griffin was a little too much of everything.  He was too convinced he knew who was trying to kill him and why that it practically screamed that he was wrong about something.  His devotion to his deceased wife and son was at first very sweet, but Lady Anne dwells on it far too much at one point in the book.  The think I really liked about Grif was that he made the tough call to stop to drinking.  Laura Landon did a fantastic job showing what a mental and physical struggle this could be for someone.

Lady Anne was incredibly stiff.  Her swearing off of any help (even though she really needed it) was enough to make me want to scream at times.  Her devotion to her sister was touching, but I sort of wish we had seen a little more of her throughout the book.

Unfortunately, I had a good chunk of the mystery figured out long before I should have which ruined the big reveal for me.  If it had been just a little more hidden it would have been an amazing twist to really make this book work.  It was just a tad too predictable to be make it out of the 3 rating range.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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Review: Wolf Hunger by Ella J. Phoenix

Title: Wolf Hunger (Dragon Heat #3)

Author: Ella J. Phoenix

Source: Author request

Genre: This one is hard to say, its not Paranormal romance, nor, its it a Urban Fantasy but it does carry some elements of both sub-genres.

Length: Novel

Rating: 3

Sexual Rating: 3

Reviewed by: Laurie 

When the last box of deadly bullets is stolen, the hunt is on and the Vampire King’s band of fighters is set for the challenge of recovering it. But Yara, the shifter-witch, has other problems to face. She must help her leader to overcome the strange illness that has befallen her before it’s too late. For that, she must go back to the only place she swore never to return – her home land.

Rafe is a typical lone wolf who spends his nights earning his bucks in the fighting ring. When he was offered a pardon for his debts in exchange for the Vampire King’s head, he didn’t even blink, thinking it would be a hard mission but not impossible. He just wasn’t expecting the saucy shifter-witch to cross his path and ruin his plans. Now, he can’t get her out of his mind and the clock is ticking for him to make good on his word.

This is the third novel of the Dragon Heat series – a paranormal lover’s delight with vampires, shifters, dragons, witches and much more. 

If you love the later BDB books then you’ll love this series. I enjoy the characters and the paranormal elements, but I tend to me more of a Romance main focus reader, meaning. I like for the hero and heroine to be the main focus of the story not the side characters and story first, but there are some readers that like the focus of all kinds of characters like in the later BDB books. These books reminds me of more Urban Fantasy then romance because you don’t have the main focus on romance nor on the main couple.

I really hate to sound picky but I read Zoricah and Tardieh story in the first book and loved it, I didn’t like them coming back and having their story told more in-depth. I wanted to read about Rafe and Yara. I know their story entwined some but there was too much depth for Z and Tardieh. Then there was the villains POV which was great but you also got a lot info on Dyam, Naiah and more, so this made for quite a bit of different POV’s going on. I do have to hand it to the author at least she kepts them separate and they all focused on the story at hand, so there is nothing crazy like head-hopping which is great for the readers. The reason why I’m rating this a 3, as a romance reviewer I have to look at the main focus on the main romance because it comes first

Now, since there is focus on quite a few characters that took away from reading Rafe and Yara background. You get to read a little about and them, but it wasn’t enough for me to really get to know them more. By the time they finally got together the book was over. Shame too because I really liked Rafe and I wanted to know more of Yara powers and how she could work them. I wanted to know why these two connected and what really drawled them together. There had to be something more than just the, oh I want you. I could feel their pull but just wanted to know why a wolf was drawn to a shifter that is also water witch and cursed.

The story is very fast pace and you get some really good paranormal element, then you also get some really good lines like this one.

“Rafe couldn’t story his mind from bowling over. They were the opposite of each other- one was panther, one wolf, one feline, one canine, one black, the other white, but Rafe had never felt so close to another imam before…”

If you like the idea of reading a book with some hot sex and you don’t have to have the main romance focus then please give this series a try, this author is very talented. 

Series order? Yes, I suggest this series to be read in order
Head-Hopping? No.
POV?Third Person 
HEA? Yes, but there is a continuation for next installment.

Cover Reveal and Giveaway: Love Me to Death by Marissa Clarke

Title: Love Me to Death (Underveil #1)

Author: Marissa Clarke

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Entangled - Select

Release Date: October 28, 2014

Medical research scientist Elena Arcos has always lived her life under the radar. When she is shot in a convenience store robbery, Elena finds herself rocketed into supernatural insanity courtesy of a sexy immortal law enforcer. He’s convinced she’s some kind of freaky half-vampire thing and that her deceased dad was the real deal: a blood sucking monster. Yeah, right.

Nikolai Itzov never anticipated battling the urge to kiss the offspring of his father’s murderer. As a Slayer, an elite law enforcer descended from Azrael himself, his orders from the Underveil General are clear: Kill her or die

Nikolai and Elena find themselves in a life and death battle to stop a plot designed to lift the Underveil and enslave humans. With her analytical mind and his centuries of training, they might be able to foil the plot with their lives and maybe their hearts intact. But in order to succeed, he must help her become the very thing he hates the most: an Undead.

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Author Bio:
Marissa Clarke lives in Texas, where everything is bigger, especially the mosquitoes. When not writing, she wrangles her rowdy pack of three teens, husband, and a Cairn Terrier named Annabel, who rules the house (and Marissa's heart) with an iron paw.

She loves to connect with readers, so follow/friend her on Facebook and Twitter, or shoot her an email from the "Contact" page.

Marissa Clarke is a pseudonym. Her real name is Mary Lindsey and she also writes young adult novels for Penguin USA.

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