Romance book talk, reviews, recipes, and dog pictures
Blogger Site: WhiskeyintheJar Romance
Guest Reviewer at: Reading Between the Wines book club
Books I'm either reviewing or looking forward to coming out in August :)
2nd
My Review
Title: The Highlander
Series: Victorian Rebels #3
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Format: Paperback & eBook, 368pgs
Published: Aug. 2, 2016 by St. Martin’s
ASIN: B01AGGG4ZW
Can the fiercest master of battle conquer a woman’s heart?
They call him the Demon Highlander. The fearsome Lieutenant Colonel Liam MacKenzie is known for his superhuman strength, towering presence, and fiery passion in the heat of battle. As Laird to the MacKenzie clan, the undefeated Marquess has vanquished his foes with all rage and wrath of his barbaric Highland ancestors. But when an English governess arrives to care for his children, the master of war finds himself up against his greatest opponent... in the game of love.
Defying all expectations, Miss Philomena is no plain-faced spinster but a ravishing beauty with voluptuous curves and haughty full lips that rattle the Laird to his core. Unintimidated by her master’s raw masculinity and savage ways, the headstrong lass manages to tame not only his wild children but the beast in his soul. With each passing day, Liam grows fonder of Miss Mena—and more suspicious. What secret is she hiding behind those emerald eyes? What darkness brought her to his keep? And how can he conquer this magnificent woman’s heart... without surrendering his own?
Title: The Right Kind of Trouble
Series: McKays #3
Author: Shiloh Walker
Format: Paperback & eBook, 384pgs
Published: Aug. 2, 2016 by St. Martin’s
ASIN: B01AGHENDQ
Desire won’t take no for an answer.
In the small Southern town of McKay’s Treasure, everybody knows that the handsome local police chief, Gideon Marshall, has been carrying a torch for Moira McKay. It’s also no secret that Moira has been rejecting Gideon since…forever. But after an attack from a mysterious stranger bent on taking down the McKay family, Moira becomes filled with distrust toward most men. Now she wonders whether she’s been wrong about Gideon all along—and if it’s not too late to admit him back into her life…and into her bed...
Gideon has finally convinced his wasted heart to give up on Moira, who he’s loved since he was sixteen years old. Moira’s attack changes everything, however—and he vows to protect her. But how much is he willing to risk for a woman who’s always kept him at bay…until now? And is it too late for Moira to tell him that her love for him has always been locked deep in her heart—and he holds the key?
9th
Title: Reaper’s Fire
Series: Reaper’s MC #6
Author: Joanna Wylde
Format: eBook & Paperback 381pgs
Published: Aug. 9, 2016 by Berkley
ASIN: B016JPTGDQ
The club comes first.
I’ve lived by those words my whole life—assumed I’d die by them, too, and I never had a problem with that. My Reaper brothers took my back and I took theirs and it was enough. Then I met her. Tinker Garrett. She’s beautiful, she’s loyal, and she works so damned hard it scares me sometimes . . . She deserves a good man—one better than me. I can’t take her yet because the club still needs me. There’s another woman, another job, another fight just ahead.
Now she’ll learn I’ve been lying to her all along. None of it’s real. Not my name, not my job, not even the clothes I wear. She thinks I’m nice. She pretends we’re just friends, that I’ve still got a soul . . . Mine’s been dead for years. Now I’m on fire for this woman, and a man can only burn for so long before he destroys everything around him.
I’m coming for you, Tinker.
22nd
Title: When A Lady Deceives
Author: Tara Kingston
Format: eBook,
Published: Aug. 22, 2016 by Entangled
Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N
A woman with a secret and a dangerous man forge an undeniable passion.
In Victorian London, reporter Jennie Quinn employs deception as a weapon. Going undercover to seek justice for a murdered informant, she’s drawn into a powerful criminal’s seductive game of cat and mouse. Enigmatic former lawman Matthew Colton is as dangerous as he is clever, but the passion in his kiss is too tempting to resist. She aches to trust him, but she will not abandon her quest for the truth.
Colton is a man with secrets of his own. Thirsting for vengeance, the disgraced Scotland Yard detective has infiltrated the criminal world he’s vowed to destroy. Jennie intrigues him, even as she breaks down the barriers around his heart. He yearns to uncover her secrets—in and out of his bed. Driven to shield her, he’ll risk everything to protect the woman whose love heals his soul.
23rd
Title: First Star I See Tonight
Series: Chicago Stars #8
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Format: Paperback & eBook, 384pgs
Published: Aug. 23, 2016 by William Morrow
ASIN: B018QLY6QS
Piper Dove is a woman with a dream—to become the best detective in the city of Chicago. First job? Trail former Chicago Stars quarterback, Cooper Graham. Problem? Graham’s spotted her, and he’s not happy.
Which is why a good detective needs to think on her feet. “The fact is...I’m your stalker. Not full-out barmy. Just...mildly unhinged.”
Piper soon finds herself working for Graham himself, although not as the bodyguard he refuses to admit he so desperately needs. Instead, he’s hired her to keep an eye on the employees at his exclusive new nightclub. But Coop’s life might be in danger, and Piper’s determined to protect him, whether he wants it or not. (Hint: Not!) If only she weren’t also dealing with a bevy of Middle Eastern princesses, a Pakistani servant girl yearning for freedom, a teenager who just wants to fit in, and an elderly neighbor demanding Piper find her very dead husband.
And then there’s Cooper Graham himself, a legendary sports hero who always gets what he wants—even if what he wants is a feisty detective hell bent on proving she’s as tough as he is.
From the bustling streets of Chicago to a windswept lighthouse on Lake Superior to the glistening waters of Biscayne Bay, two people who can’t stand to lose will test themselves and each other to discover what matters most.
27th
Title: In My Arms Tonight
Series: NYC Singles #2
Author: Sasha Clinton
Format: eBook, 239pgs
Published: Aug. 27, 2016 by Sasha Clinton
ASIN: B01I6EDX4Q
What if you can’t help but hurt the person you love?
Kat Cullen has it all—a staff writer position at the New York Times, beauty, independence—until she finds herself alone on the subway at night with a rapist. Saved by Alex Summer, a democratic candidate running for mayor of New York, she develops an unexpected friendship with him.
Alex’s chaotic past is the kind of juicy scoop every political reporter dreams of—which is why he keeps it hidden. But as he starts falling in love with Kat, he opens up to her about his darkest secrets. What he doesn’t know is that Kat already knows all about him, and she’s on an assignment to expose his history.
Caught between truth, love and ambition, two people must figure out the politics of the heart.
30th
Title: Mad for the Plaid
Series: The Oxenburg Princes #3
Author: Karen Hawkins
Format: Paperback & eBook, 400pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by Pocket Book
ASIN: B0176M3WYK
Prince Nikolai Romanovin is bored out of his bejeweled crown with London's society scene. If he has to make inane small talk or dance with one more tongue-tied virgin, he might actually run off. So when he gets word his beloved grandmother might be in danger back in his homeland of Oxenburg, Nik is all too willing to rush to the estate she's been staying in in the snow-capped mountains of Scotland. Arriving in secret only to find his grandmother missing, Nik devises a plan to switch identities with a member of his honor guard so he can move around freely without the pomp and circumstance that comes with the Crown Prince title. He relishes the freedom that comes with losing his title, until he spots her...
While her five older sisters all enjoyed seasons, got married to men of high station, and had children of their own, Lyssa, the baby of the family, was left at home to be raised by her absent father and her sharp-witted, but ailing grandmother after losing her mother in childbirth. Now twenty-nine years old, the sole caretaker of her grandmother, and the entrenched mistress of the castle, Lyssa has resigned herself to living at the castle and enjoying the amusements offered - spending time with her grandmother, copious amounts of reading, wild rides through the moors, and the occasional ball in the local town. All in all, it's a satisfying, if sedate, life . . . But when she meets a guard more handsome, and far more arrogant and sure of himself than any man she's ever met, she's determined to figure out his secrets, no matter the cost.
Title: Dare You To Run
Series: Unbroken Heroes #2
Author: Dawn Ryder
Format: Paperback & eBook, 320pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by St. Martin’s
ASIN: B01BKMMGB2
Serve and protect
For Vitus Hale, only one mission has ever gone wrong. All he had to do was rescue a beautiful woman from her kidnappers. But falling hard into bed—and into love—with the stunning innocent was not part of the game plan, and when she leaves him in the dust, Vitus has nothing but a blemished record and a hardened heart. Now, after three long years, his beauty has finally come back into his life—and this time, failure is not an option…
Seduce and destroy
Damascus Ryland knew from their first steamy embrace that stoic warrior Vitus Hale is the only man for her, but when her power-hungry Congressman father offered her an ultimatum—sever ties with Vitus, or he dies—Damascus knew she had to walk away to save the man she loved. But now, three years later, a new threat is closing in on her—and tossing Vitus right back into her life. Damascus needs to keep her love for him locked in her heart if she is to keep him safe, but the old flame that burned between them is still as vibrant and hot as ever. Now, Damascus and Vitus must risk it all to find their freedom…and embrace their love…
Title: My Fair Princess
Series: The Improper Princesses #1
Author: Vanessa Kelly
Format: Paperback & eBook, 352pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by Zebra
ASIN: B0190HGU48
Despite being the illegitimate daughter of a prince, Gillian Dryden is happily ignorant of all social graces. After growing up wild in Italy, Gillian has been ordered home to England to find a suitable husband. And Charles Valentine Penley, the excessively proper, distractingly handsome Duke of Leverton, has agreed to help transform her from a willful tomboy to a blushing debutante.
Powerful and sophisticated, Charles can make or break reputations with a well-placed word. But his new protégée, with her habit of hunting bandits and punching earls, is a walking scandal. The ton is aghast . . . but Charles is thoroughly intrigued. Tasked with taking the hoyden in hand, he longs to take her in his arms instead. Can such an outrageous attraction possibly lead to a fairytale ending?
Title: Stealing Taffy
Series: Bigler, North Carolina #3
Author: Susan Donovan
Format: Paperback & eBook, 336pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by St. Martin’s
ASIN: B01BKN0BFY
Ten weeks in a swanky Arizona rehab center has done wonders for Tanyalee Newberry. She’s turning over a new leaf – no more manipulating men, shoplifting, or forgery for her! But when her flight home gets rerouted in bad weather, she ends up sharing a hotel room (and seven hours of mind-numbing sex) with her airplane seatmate, a complicated Northerner who is clearly not who he says he is. Tanyalee sneaks off while he sleeps, leaving a bracelet as a memento of their encounter.
DEA Special Agent Dante Cabrera wakes up alone in a Washington, DC hotel room, bested at his own “love-‘em-and-leave-‘em” game by a sexy Southern belle. A pink and silver charm bracelet engraved with the word “Taffy” is all that’s left of the wildest night he’s had in years. And because his transfer request was denied, it’s back to the hills of Western North Carolina Dante must go. Weeks pass, but Dante can’t forget the taste of sweet Taffy.
When an ongoing investigation leads Dante to a little girl Tanyalee mentors in a community service program, their anonymous hotel hookup gets dragged into the bright light of real life. Is there more to Tanyalee and Dante than a one-night stand? Has Tanyalee unwittingly put herself and the child in danger? Can Dante save them both.
Title: Meant to be Mine
Series: Guilty Pleasures #1
Author: Lisa Marie Perry
Format: Paperback & eBook, 400pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by Forever
ASIN: B01CDDAF3I
Loving him was hard. Wanting him was so damn easy . . .
Sofia Mercer may have been sick as a teen, but she’s no delicate flower. And she’s proven it by making it on her own and starting a new life away from the town that turned against her, away from the boy who broke her already fragile heart. But when her aunt Luz dies unexpectedly, leaving Sofia with a mountain of regrets and the keys to a quirky boutique, Sofia has no choice but to return to Cape Cod. Only, this new life in her old town comes with complications.
Burke Wolf was Sofia’s first love—a relationship that burned bright and went up in flames. Seeing him again, Sofia can’t help but get caught up in that all-too-familiar tornado of passion and pain. He’s battled his own demons—that much is clear. But Sofia can’t afford to be careless with her heart . . . and loving Burke again might just break it completely.
Title: Run to You
Series: Risking It All #1
Author: Rachel Lacey
Format: Paperback & eBook, 368pgs
Published: Aug. 30, 2016 by Forever
ASIN: B01B1W0M8A
ONE LITTLE LIE. A WHOLE LOTTA TROUBLE.
Moments after meeting the most gorgeous guy ever, Gabby Winters promptly gets stung by a zillion yellowjackets and falls-not gracefully-into a stream. Yup, Ethan Hunter is trouble with a capital "hot," and Gabby definitely needs to keep her distance. Except in the small town of Haven, there's nowhere to hide from Ethan's sexy, infectious grin . . . and all the residents are conspiring against her.
At the center of the town's matchmaking is Ethan's grandmother, who's convinced their relationship is a done deal. Rather than break her heart, Gabby and Ethan find themselves cornered into pretending to be falling in love. The problem: there's serious sizzling attraction between them. And if this charade continues, they won't fool just the entire town - they might fool themselves too . . .
Well, looks like my bank account is going to be hurting after this month, so many wonderful choices!
Any favorites you're looking forward to?