Review: Max by Sawyer Bennett

Title: Max
By: Sawyer Bennett
Series: Cold Fury Hockey #8
My Copy: Amazon.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

The ice is a cold mistress. As the league’s most eligible goalie, Max Fournier has access to his fair share of willing puck bunnies, but right now he’s more interested in bringing home another championship than a one-night stand. A romantic at heart, Max believes in love; he’s just not great at relationships. So when he finally meets a nice girl who’s not blinded by his celebrity, he’s feeling the heat—and the pressure to save her from herself.

Between working two jobs and raising her sister’s kids, Julianne Bradley doesn’t have time for sports—or men. All she knows about Max is that he’s the sexiest customer to ever grace her gas-station counter. And he sees past her tired eyes and makes Jules yearn for things she can’t have: a glamorous fling, a passionate lover, and the time to enjoy both. Max makes her feel like Cinderella, even though Jules has enough baggage to crush a glass slipper. Luckily, he’s no prince—only a fierce competitor determined to win her heart.

Oh, girls, who wouldn't want Max Fournier to show up at their work and woo the pants off of them?  I know I wouldn't say no to that.  He is practically dreamy in every sense of the word. 

We finally get Max's story and it was totally worth the wait.  He meets Jules while she is working at a gas station and is completely smitten with everything that she is.  He is Cold Fury's knight in shining armor and knows exactly how sweetly and carefully to treat Jules. 

An instant mom to her two nephews and one niece, who is over-worked and under-paid, Jules just wants to sleep but life isn’t letting her.  All of these responsibilities have bogged down and when Max walks into her life, she is dumbfounded that there is even a man out there who would be so kind and giving to her and her kids. 

Ugh, this was such a sweet book and Jules and Max together made it even sweeter.  What I loved the most was Max’s understanding in everything regarding Jules and the kids.  He understood her need to work herself to the bones so that she could provide for them (although he didn’t like it.)  He got that every second that she could, she spent time with them and he tagged along.  He just got it and he got the way into Jules’ heart was to love her niece and nephews as much as she did. 

Review: Rushing the Goal by Toni Aleo

Title: Rushing the Goal
By: Toni Aleo
Series: Assassins #8
My Copy: Netgalley.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

Lucy Sinclair was no stranger to pain.

She grew up with three younger brothers, met a bad boy, got pregnant by him, married him, and then suffered through a nasty divorce from him. Pain. That was pain. To top it off, she even had to go through the heartbreaking divorce of her parents. Through it all, she survived. All she cared about was making sure her daughter was happy and taken care of. Despite an ex-husband hell-bent on ruining her life, she fought to overcome. She’s gotten to the point that she’s okay with being just okay. She never cared about herself because she never had the time. It was Angie and only Angie she focused on, but that all changed when Benji Paxton offered to help her daughter on the ice.

Benji knew the moment he saw Lucy, he’d never be the same. Especially when she came with the bundle of crazy that was her daughter. His heart wasn’t ready for them. After years spent sobering up and finding who he was without the alcohol, he never forgot he was being punished for not appreciating the love he had when he was younger. Because of his past, he had gotten used to being alone, a recluse, but even he had to admit it was getting old. He was lonely. Hockey wasn’t enough anymore. He wanted a family; he wanted his true love.

And Lucy and Angie were just that.

They were just two lost souls.

Floating through life with no purpose.

But finding each other gave them direction, a chance at a future.

And had them both Rushing the Goal to be together.

I hate feeling like a broken record and I feel like I have been broken for sometime, saying the same thing over and over again.  “It was a good book.  The guy was perfection. The girl, however, was just too standoffish and headstrong about her independence.”  That is all I feel like I am saying anymore and it makes me sad.  I want a guy who is willing to bend over backwards for his girl and rearrange the whole world so that she can smile but I also want a girl who has the strength to rearrange her whole world herself but also knows when to let someone step in and in this book, it took a while for that to happen.  Lucy was just kinda straight out mean at first!  While she needed a great man in her life, sometimes I felt that Benji was too good for her and too forgiving to her.  But Angie, Lucy’s daughter, dang, that girl won my heart over.  It was kinda worth all of Lucy’s moments to see how wonderful Angie and Benji got along. 

Now I am not saying that I didn’t like this book – I honestly did like it a lot.  So please don’t let me ruin it with my above rant.  It just feels like this is all I am reading anymore and I just want both of my characters on even ground so they can grab hands and take off running towards a sunset and in a glorious relationship. 

That being said, I thought “Rushing the Goal” was a good addition to Aleo’s series – a series which we have loved from the start.

Review: The Goal by Elle Kennedy

Title: The Goal
By: Elle Kennedy
Series: Off-Campus #4
My Copy: Amazon.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

She’s good at achieving her goals…

College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick butt in law school, and land a high-paying job at a cutthroat firm. Her path to escaping her shameful past certainly doesn’t include a gorgeous hockey player who believes in love at first sight. One night of sizzling heat and surprising tenderness is all she’s willing to give John Tucker, but sometimes, one night is all it takes for your entire life to change.

But the game just got a whole lot more complicated

Tucker believes being a team player is as important as being the star. On the ice, he’s fine staying out of the spotlight, but when it comes to becoming a daddy at the age of twenty-two, he refuses to be a bench warmer. It doesn’t hurt that the soon-to-be mother of his child is beautiful, whip-smart, and keeps him on his toes. The problem is, Sabrina’s heart is locked up tight, and the fiery brunette is too stubborn to accept his help. If he wants a life with the woman of his dreams, he’ll have to convince her that some goals can only be made with an assist.

We are back on the ice and in the lives of our favorite men who rule the puck.  Kennedy brings us another satisfying book in the Off-Campus series with one of your soon to be favorite men Tucker.

Tucker….yes, let’s get married.  I mean I know you aren’t real but I can still believe that we could have true love in a fictional world. 

If there is anyone to write the best men in a book, it is Elle Kennedy.  Every guy seems to have a special quality about him that makes my heart pitter-patter and Tucker is no different.  Raised as a Southern man, he knows how to treat a woman and his eye falls on Sabrina.  Now, I’m going to tell the truth here and say that I wasn’t a big fan of Sabrina…at all.  I think it might be the fact that she was just too headstrong on doing things herself, cold, and closed off, and while I get it was because of her home life, I still felt as if she could have leaned on Tucker a little more.  He was solid as a rock throughout the entire book while to me, Sabrina wavered a lot and couldn’t see what was right in front of her.  I found myself wanting to shake some sense into her so that happiness could pursue and I could relish in it all.  How could a girl not experience Tucker and walk away?!  Not I, not I! 

Back to Tucker, yeah, he is more than perfect and if you want to read about a sweet, thoughtful, loyal, and dirty guy, he’s the one you want to pick up.

Another wonderful addition to a brilliant series and I can’t wait to read more and especially if it is about Fitzy.

Cover Reveal: Salvaged by Jay Crownover

About SALVAGED

Hudson Wheeler is a nice guy. Everyone knows it, including his fiancée who left him with a canceled wedding and a baby on the way. He’s tired of finishing last and is ready to start living in the moment with nights soaked in whiskey, fast cars, and even faster girls. He’s set to start living on the edge, but when he meets Poppy Cruz, her sad eyes in the most gorgeous face he’s ever seen hook him in right away. Wheeler can see Poppy’s pain and all he wants to do is take care of her and make her smile, whatever it takes.

Poppy can’t remember a time when she didn’t see strangers as the enemy. After a lifetime of being hurt from the men who swore to protect her, Poppy’s determined to keep herself safe by keeping everyone else at arm’s length. Wheeler’s sexy grin and rough hands from hours restoring classic cars shouldn’t captivate her, but every time she’s with him, she can’t help being pulled closer to him. Though she’s terrified to trust again, Poppy soon realizes it might hurt even more to shut Wheeler out—and the intense feelings pulsing through her are making it near impossible to resist him.

The only thing Poppy is sure of is that her heart is in need of some serious repair, and the more time she spends with Wheeler, the more she’s convinced he’s the only man with the tools to fix it.

 

About Jay Crownover

Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men, Welcome to the Point, and Saints of Denver series. Like her characters, she is a big fan of tattoos. She loves music and wishes she could be a rock star, but since she has no aptitude for singing or instrument playing, she’ll settle for writing stories with interesting characters and make the reader feel something.

Cover Reveal: Casanova by Emma Hart

I loved him more than life.

He broke me and he didn't even know it.

I ran from him.

He didn't chase me.

He never needed to, because he knew I'd come back.

He was right.

Death brought me home to him.

Brett Walker.

Drop dead gorgeous and filthy-mouthed with a smile that turns saints to sinners.

A casanova to his core.

My ex-best friend.

And the bad boy whose reputation precedes him—the same reputation I'm tasked with turning to gold... Or so they think.

ADD TO GOODREADS

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By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to two beautiful little monsters. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of whatever she fancies - usually wine - and writes books.

Emma is working on Top Secret projects she will share with her followers and fans at every available opportunity. Naturally, all Top Secret projects involve a dashingly hot guy who likes to forget to wear a shirt, a sprinkling (or several) of hold-onto-your-panties hot scenes, and a whole lotta love.

She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the dishes, but that seems to be when all the ideas come to life.

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Review: A Veil of Vines by Tillie Cole

Title: A Veil of Vines
By: Tillie Cole
My Copy: Ebook from Publisher
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

To most people, princes, princesses, counts and dukes are found only in the pages of the most famous of fairytales. Crowns, priceless jewels and gilded thrones belong only in childhood dreams.

But for some, these frivolous fancies are truth.

For some, they are real life.

On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, people have always treated me as someone special. All because of my ancestral name and legacy. All because of a connection I share to our home country’s most important family of all.

I am Caresa Acardi, the Duchessa di Parma. A blue blood of Italy. I was born to marry well. And now the marriage date is set.

I am to marry into House Savona. The family that would have been the royals had Italy not abolished the monarchy in 1946. But to the aristocrats of my home, the abolition means nothing at all.

The Savonas still hold power where it counts most.

In our tight-knit world of money, status and masked balls, they are everything and more.

And I am soon to become one of them.

I am soon to become Prince Zeno Savona’s wife…

… or at least I was, until I met Achille.

And everything changed.

The two series that I have read from Tillie Cole have been rough, raw, and frankly a little terrifying at times (however always wonderful) but “A Veil of Vines” was not at all what I expected and oh so different and beautiful. Cole really showed her soft and sweet side with the story of Caresa, who is betrothed to Zeno, but slowly falls in love with Achille. 

After Caresa is uprooted and moves to Italy, her fiancé leaves her to attend to the family business of making wine.  Left alone, Caresa is bored until she meets Achille, one of the wine makers.  It was heart-warming to read how Caresa bloomed under the ever-watchful eyes of Achille not only in the ways of making wine but as a lover. Also, how Achille bettered himself under the dutiful help of Caresa.  The time that they spend together just seemed magical and floated off the pages.  I could see picture all of it: Achille’s house, the vineyard, the horse stalls, and the beautiful land that surround the property.  It felt as if I was hidden figure taking in their experiences right along with them. 

And what made me gloriously happy is that there were a few surprises that I didn’t see coming.  So no spoiler alerts needed here; you need to read them for yourself!