Thursday, April 3, 2014

LEANN'S REVIEW: The Devil's Salvation (Gemma James ) The Devil's Kiss #4



It's been a year since Kayla Sutton walked away from Gage Channing, the man who blackmailed her into sexual slavery. Now he's back, and so is Ian Kaplan, Kayla's one-time lover from her college days. Both men want her, but only one holds the power to make her submit—to her own dark desires and to the truth she still denies, even to herself.

But Gage's jealousy is his worst enemy, and when he thinks Kayla has chosen Ian, he sets in motion a drastic plan to claim what's his. Only Kayla never expects him to infiltrate her heart so effortlessly; and she never dreamed there would come a day when he wouldn't want her—when the mere sight of her turns him away in disgust.

He believes she’s committed the ultimate sin, but will she use his mistake to finally escape the cage of his obsession? Or will she do whatever it takes to make him see he can entrust his heart to her...just as she's already lost the core of her being to him?




My breath grew shallow, from arousal, from fear. Gage was good at that—eliciting strong emotions that contrasted so sharply, they knocked a person on their ass in total confusion. I shouldn’t want him. I should scream at him to get the hell out of my house and never come back. I should get a freaking restraining order. 

As if the turmoil inside me didn’t exist, I set our omelets on the table and calmly took a seat across from him. “What did you mean by boundaries?” I stabbed a bite and shoved it in my mouth. Raising my eyes to his turned out to be a mistake. His hypnotic stare paralyzed me; I couldn’t look away if my life depended on it. I fell into the ocean of his gaze and almost missed the satisfied quirk of his lips. Almost.

“You know by now that a relationship with me won’t be your standard variety. You’ll have rules that govern your behavior.”

“My behavior?” 

“Yes. I expect you to obey me.” He set his fork down and winced. “But last year I was cruel to you and that’s not how I normally treat a woman. Not even when they beg me to hurt them beyond what I’m comfortable with.”

“Then why?” I choked out. Everything he’d done hit me square in the chest, and his admission that he’d been exceptionally cruel hurt more than it should.

“I wanted to destroy what was his.” He lowered his head with a frown. At least he had the grace to look ashamed.

“Congratulations.” I let my fork drop, satisfied with the clatter it made. “You succeeded.”

“No, I didn’t. Your strength is both my frustration and my undoing. There’s nothing more irritating or sexier on a woman.” He took a bite, and his gaze veered up to mine. “And to clarify on what I mean by boundaries, we’ll set limits this time. You’ll have a safe word.”

“You’re talking as if we’re going to be together.”

“I’m not leaving here without you, Kayla.”

The Devil's Kiss Trilogy (The first book) 






Gemma James (a pseudonym for Christina Jean Michaels) loves to explore the darker side of sex in her fiction. She's morbidly curious about anything dark and edgy and enjoys exploring the deviant side of human nature. Her stories have been described as being "not for the faint of heart." 

She lives with her husband and their four children--three rambunctious UFC/wrestling-loving boys and one girl who steals everyone's attention. 


2 winners will win an ebook copy of The Devil's Salvation 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review:

This series had me hook line and sinker. I was completely caught up in this twisted love story. Broken people healing each other the only way they know how. This book was gut wrenching at times. I loved the ending though. It was incredibly emotional! A perfect HEA for these characters.

I love Gage. I probably shouldn't but I have a soft spot for the guy. His past is sad and shaped who he is now. Which can be a terrifying character. Oh Kayla. I don't know how I feel about her sometimes. I love that she stuck with him even when she wanted to run away. I also love that she would do anything for her daughter. 

Again a great read. Not for the faint of heart but I highly recommend. 

Rating: 

RELEASE BLITZ: Reckless Together (Gina Robinson)

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Title: Reckless Together
Author: Gina Robinson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 3rd
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Synopsis
Book Three of the Reckless Series A Contemporary New Adult College Romance   The stunning conclusion of Ellie and Logan's love story that began on a hot August night in Reckless Longing and continued through the depths of winter in Reckless Secrets...   Ellie   My mother is a liar, a seductress, a keeper of family secrets, and a master manipulator. She took Austin from me. Now she claims she wants forgiveness. But she's after Logan. I know she is. He thinks he can protect me from her. I love him for trying, for playing hero, but he doesn't know her like I do. She'll charm him until he lets his guard down and then she'll strike so quickly he'll never see the attack coming. I may already be too late to stop it.   Logan's love is essential to me, like sunshine and deep nurturing breaths. He's my all. I can't live without him. But there's so much standing in the way of our happiness. As dangerous as she is, Mom is the least of my worries. I'm fighting the darkness Logan is struggling with, the upcoming trial, his family, and sometimes I even think I'm fighting a phantom of myself. But I won't give up. Ever. Logan   I wish I could make El understand how much I love her, but I'm losing control. She makes me lose control. Since the abuse, that scares me shitless and brings back the guilt and the memories I want to erase. Things that have nothing to do with El, and everything because they affect the man I want to be for her.   I can't face losing her. I don't want her to hear the ugly truth about me, but I have to testify. I have to, even though I'm risking everything and fighting my dad and myself to do it. After it's over, will El still love me? I have to help her reconcile with her mom. Then maybe she'll understand.   This is a contemporary romance with mature themes, language, and situations. Readers should be over 17!  
Buy The Book
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About The Author
Gina
Gina Robinson is the award-winning author of the contemporary new adult romances Reckless Longing, Reckless Secrets, and Reckless Together and the Agent Ex series of humorous romantic suspense novels. She's currently working on a new contemporary romance/new adult series called Switched in Love, all about the perils of falling in love with someone who isn't who you think they are. What happens when you find the love you're looking for in the most unusual circumstances and with the last person you ever thought you'd be attracted to? Look for the first Switched in Love romance in early summer 2014.  
Connect with Gina Online:
Twitter: @ginamrobinson
Excerpt
Ellie I hated my mother. She'd done it again. This time from across the state. Intruded on what should have been one of the most beautiful moments of my life. After swearing for my entire existence I'd never have sex with any guy I wasn't totally sure was long term, I slept with Logan Walker. Trusted him with my heart and my body. He was so sweet, thinking he could protect me from Mom. That anybody could. He didn't know her like I did. Didn't know how cunning she could be. How devious. Just like I hadn't known it was possible to feel such an intricate cocktail of emotions—love, lust, ecstasy, total happiness, fear, and blinding rage. It would have been absolutely heady, except for the anger. I'd kept my fury under control while I'd been with Logan, focusing all my attention and thoughts on staying in the moment with him. The guy had literally had a heart in his hands. A balloon heart. But still, how could I resist that? And the sweet, funny way he'd stocked up on protection? And how he couldn't stay away from me, no matter how hard he tried? But now that I was back in my dorm room, thoughts of my mother and her Snow White's Evil Queen Stepmother act popped into my mind. Or maybe she was more like Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts playing a giant chessboard with my life. What was her game? What was her next move? Whatever she had planned, I had to stop it. My hands trembled as I pulled my cell phone out. I took a deep breath. She and I had been estranged since she slept with Austin, my boyfriend before Logan. And I left her and came to college to find my bio dad, Jason Front. I had a delicate new relationship with him and his wife and baby. Mom could destroy all that, too. She didn't know I'd come to the university to find him. She didn't know he was here at all. I hesitated on the verge of battle. I had to risk it. I'd chance anything to keep her away from Logan and me. I stared at the phone another second as I gathered up my courage. We hadn't spoken since before Christmas. It was nearly March now. She'd take my call. I knew she would. In fact, I was certain she was waiting for it. I hit the button that dialed her and braced myself. "Ellie!" She picked up before it even rang. That was how confident she'd been that I'd call. That was how expectant she was. Which put me even more on edge—what did she want? Melissa Ann Sawyer always wanted something. She never gave anything away and she never played for free. "Leave Logan alone! Stay the hell away from him!" It was the wrong way to lead. I'd let my anger get in the way of my scheming and common sense. I'd forgotten my own chess metaphor. She laughed. "So you finally slept with him." Her voice was amused and as nubby as raw silk, not quite her usual polished self. But as grating as ever in its confidence. "I was wondering how long you'd hold out. He's a handsome boy. Now you can finally stop blaming me for ruining your life. You've turned out just like me." "Not just like you," I said. "I'm not pregnant." "That you know about. Be extra careful, Ellie. We're fertile girls when we're young and careless!" She laughed again. Mom had a laugh for everything, like life always amused her, even when it was tragic. Even when there was absolutely nothing funny about it. This time it felt like she was laughing at herself as much as at me. "I didn't say I slept with him." And I hadn't said I hadn't. Semantics were everything when playing with Mom's fire. "Of course you have. That's why you're so protective and possessive of him now. He finally felt close enough to you, confident enough to tell you that he and I have been talking. And so you rushed to protect him from big, bad me. It all adds up. And I can tell from your voice you've lost your virginity." "You cannot." She'd used that "I can hear it in your voice" tactic on me since I was little. I'd outgrown my belief in her magical abilities to read voices and see out of the back of her head. "I hear it in your denial." "Just stay away from him!" I pulled the phone away from my ear, ready to hang up. "Or what?" Devoid of laughter and completely serious, she was the ice queen, full of menace.  
Ellie's Top-Secret Cobblestone Bars
Crust 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened 1 cup sugar 4 Tbsp. Dutch baking cocoa 1 tsp. vanilla extract heaping 1/4 tsp. baking powder 3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour 1 extra large egg   Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Spread into 13x9 pan.   Filling 1/2 stick butter, softened 6 oz cream cheese 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp . vanilla extract 1 small egg 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour   Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour and mix until smooth. Spread over the crust evenly.   1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips   Sprinkle evenly over the filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.   2 1/2 cups mini-marshmallows   Sprinkle on the baked crust/filling and bake an additional 2 minutes.   Frosting 4 Tbsp. butter 2 oz. cream cheese 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/3 cup 2% milk 2-1/2 Tbsp. Dutch baking cocoa   Cream butter. Add cream cheese. Add half the powdered sugar. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Mix cocoa and remaining powdered sugar together. Add to the milk mixture. Mix until smooth. Pour over the melted marshmallows and swirl together. Cool. Cut into bars.   Servings: About 18 bars.
Reckless Bundle Coming Soon
   
reckless bundle
Great value! Save up to 44% compared to buying each book separately! This series is contemporary romance with mature themes, language, and situations. Readers should be over 17!   Reckless Longing   Book One A Contemporary New Adult College Romance   Ellie and Logan's love story begins one hot August night…   Ellie   My mom betrayed me in the worst way possible. I can't forgive her, but I can outwit her. I'm going to unravel the family secret she's been keeping from me my whole life. So I'm going to college across the state from her, to the place that has the answers. I hope. But I have to be careful or I'll blow everything. I can't tell anyone what I'm doing.   I didn't mean to fall in love. I can't afford to give my heart away or open up to anyone, least of all charming, rich, former bad boy baseball star Logan Walker. But he looked so adorable sitting there nursing a black eye the night I met him at my very first campus event. The way he held my hand made me flush in the suffocating heat of August and feel really beautiful for the first time in so long I can't remember. My scar didn't even hurt.   But Logan's moods are mercurial. He's keeping secrets of his own that are too dark to share, even with me. We agree to be just friends. But our hearts and bodies have minds of their own. Before I know it, I'm in too deep with him and the answer to the family secret I came to campus to find may be the thing that tears us apart.   Reckless Secrets   Book Two A Contemporary New Adult College Romance The engaging continuation of Ellie and Logan's love story that began on a hot August night in Reckless Longing... Ellie   My bitch of a mother kept a family secret from me for nineteen years. I outsmarted her and found out what it is. Now I should be deliriously happy. I am happy. Except…I have to keep it from Logan. At the same time, I know I should tell him. If he finds out by accident, he'll hate me and feel betrayed. But it's complicated and I have to wait until things fall into place or it will cause problems for my newly found dad.   And Logan is wrestling with his own demons. Because of me. Dex and I just meant to prank our hideous chem prof. We didn't mean to hurt anyone, least of all Logan. If I'd known it would expose his secret, I never would have done it. I love him so much. I can't lose him. I won't. I just hope he can forgive me.   Reckless Together   Book Three A Contemporary New Adult College Romance   The stunning conclusion of Ellie and Logan's love story that began on a hot August night in Reckless Longing and continued through the depths of winter in Reckless Secrets...   Ellie   My mother is a liar, a seductress, a keeper of family secrets, and a master manipulator. She took Austin from me. Now she claims she wants forgiveness. But she's after Logan. I know she is. He thinks he can protect me from her. I love him for trying, for playing hero, but he doesn't know her like I do. She'll charm him until he lets his guard down and then she'll strike so quickly he'll never see the attack coming. I may already be too late to stop it.   Logan's love is essential to me, like sunshine and deep nurturing breaths. He's my all. I can't live without him. But there's so much standing in the way of our happiness. As dangerous as she is, Mom is the least of my worries. I'm fighting the darkness Logan is struggling with, the upcoming trial, his family, and sometimes I even think I'm fighting a phantom of myself. But I won't give up. Ever. Logan   I wish I could make El understand how much I love her, but I'm losing control. She makes me lose control. Since the abuse, that scares me shitless and brings back the guilt and the memories I want to erase. Things that have nothing to do with El, and everything because they affect the man I want to be for her.   I can't face losing her. I don't want her to hear the ugly truth about me, but I have to testify. I have to, even though I'm risking everything and fighting my dad and myself to do it. After it's over, will El still love me? I have to help her reconcile with her mom. Then maybe she'll understand.  
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BOOK BLITZ: The Scandalous Love of a Duke (Jane Lark) Marlow Intrigues #3


Title: The Scandalous Love of a Duke (Marlow Intrigues #3)
Author: Jane Lark
Genre: Regency Romance (Historical)
Publish Date: April 3, 2014
Publisher: HarperImpulse
Event Organized By:  Literati Author Services, Inc.

Synopsis
Book three in Jane Lark's Kindle best-selling Regency romance series!
Isolated by life and choice, John Harding, the Duke of Pembroke, sees an angel in a pale mauve dress across a room and is drawn closer as lust grips firm and hard in his stomach.  The wheat-blonde hair escaping her dull dove-grey bonnet and caressing her neck lures his eyes to a spot he'd like to kiss.  She speaks with animation her hands moving. Then as if she senses his gaze the stranger turns and looks at him.
A rush of pain and longing spilled from Katherine's heart into her limbs. It was so long since she'd seen John but her reaction was the same as it had been more than half-a-dozen years before. She loved him, secretly, without hope, but a chasm of years and status stood
between them.
Purchase Links:  Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

Excerpt
A glass of red wine balanced in one hand, the stem dangling between his fingers, he joined another group of guests, fulfilling his duty. He trusted no one here.
God, this was his life now, duty and falsehood. He missed Egypt, he missed adventure and peace and simplicity. He was already bored with people’s endless supplication. Everyone seemed to want something from him. They sought to attach themselves to either his wealth or his power.
His grandfather had warned of this.
John had had enough. He was seeking his family to escape it for a little while, and looking for Mary particularly. He knew his vibrant sister would bring him back from the cold darkness crowding in on him.
He’d passed his mother and Edward in the hall, they’d been speaking with Richard and Penny, they’d directed him in here.
His gaze swept about the room then stopped.
There was a young woman standing amidst his family, like a blonde beacon of light amongst his dark-haired black-clad cousins. She was an angel in a pale mauve dress.
Lust gripped had and firm in his stomach, an intense physical attraction. He’d never experienced anything so instant before. But it was a long time since he’d bedded a woman – far too long.
Her figure was a sublime balance of curves and narrow waist. Her spine had a beautiful arch as it curved into the point where her dress opened onto a full skirt.
Wheat-blonde hair escaped a dull dove-grey bonnet, caressing her neck and drawing his eyes to a place he’d like to kiss.
She was speaking with animation her hands moving.
He moved closer and as if she sensed his gaze the stranger turned and looked at him. In answer a lightning need struck his groin, a sharp sudden pain. She was an English Rose among orchids, the sort of woman he had seen nothing of abroad. Her skin was pale, with roses blooming in her cheeks, and her eyes were a vivid beautiful blue, like the bluebells which bloomed in spring, in the woods at Pembroke Place.
She was what he had longed for abroad and not even known he’d been lacking.
His attention wholly captured, desire slipped into his blood as his groin grew heavy with hunger.
This was what came from abstinence he supposed. He’d never had a fancy for fair, fay women before. He did now.
She did not look the sort for a fling though, certainly not the she-wolf type who stalked the foreign fields. His mind began rattling through his guest list, but no name fit her, and her dull grey bonnet and shawl did not speak of affluence. Who was she?
He smiled as he grew nearer, then realised he was staring and shifted his gaze to the others in the group. It was then he noticed Phillip as they turned to towards him. “My God.”
“Your Grace.”
“Phillip.” Lord, John hoped Phillip had not come here with a motive. John did not wish to hear oily grovelling from an old friend. His heart thumped in cold anger, not gladness. Then he looked at the blonde and his breath caught as recognition whispered in his head. Kate.

About the Author

Jane is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional Historical and New Adult Romance, and a Kindle top 25 bestselling author.
She began her first historical novel at sixteen, but a life full of adversity derailed her as she lives with the restrictions of Ankylosing Spondylitis.
When she finally completed a novel it was because she was determined not to reach forty still saying, I want to write.
Now Jane is writing a Regency series and contemporary, new adult, stories and she is thrilled to be giving her characters life in others' imaginations at last.
You might think that Jane was inspired to write by Jane Austen, especially as she lives near Bath in the United Kingdom, but you would be wrong. Jane's favourite author is Anya Seton, and the book which drew her into the bliss of falling into historical imagination was 'Katherine' a story crafted from reality.
Jane has drawn on this inspiration to discover other real-life love stories, reading memoirs and letters to capture elements of the past, and she uses them to create more realistic plots.
'Basically I love history and I am sucker for a love story. I love the feeling of falling in love; it's wonderful being able to do it time and time again in fiction.'
Jane is also a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom, and uses this specialist understanding of people to bring her characters to life.
Connect with the Author:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Website | Goodreads

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