Sweet Talk

Sweet Talk
Julie Garwood
Netgalley review

Amazon Blurb -
When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid first encounters Olivia MacKenzie, she makes quite an impression.

The beautiful, tough, young attorney has stumbled into the middle of an FBI sting operation and has reduced it to chaos. Months of surveillance and careful planning down the drain, Kincaid’s partner is furious and lets Olivia know that she’s ticked off the wrong guy. After all, he’s FBI.

Olivia isn’t intimidated by his partner’s bullying because she’s something even scarier . . . she’s IRS.

And working for the IRS isn’t for the faint of heart. She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naive and unsuspecting victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry about. But after she asks questions of the wrong people, her life is suddenly endangered. She’s accustomed to fighting for the underdog but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when to call for reinforcements, she contacts Grayson Kincaid.

Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

*****

Olivia MacKenzie is an attorney for the IRS.  She loves going after the bad guys, but what happens when one of them also is your father?

Olivia didn't have an easy childhood by any stretch of the word.  She was very sick along with her three "sisters" lovingly called the Pips, they were in the hospital for a long time. Her family never came to visit her so her mother's sister Emma stepped up to the plate for her.  Her father is a wealthy investor her mother just follows his lead regardless and her real sister is a selfish brat.

Jump forward to present time and Olivia is worried budget cuts will get her the boot so she is job hunting.  It puts her in the middle of a sting operation with the FBI quite by accident, but introduces her to hunky agent Grayson Kincaid.  After an attempt against her life the two try to piece together who wants her dead and the list can be many.  As an IRS attorney there is no shortage of people who hate her, coupled with her father, his attorney and his investors who view her as trying to stop their gravy train. 

Her relationship with Grayson blooms and he is very protective of her to say the least, and her Aunt Emma is more a mother to her than her own.  Her family is rabid against poor Olivia and it all is very tiring.  Who wants her dead?  Will her father get away with his Madoffesque scam?  Read to find out.

This was a good book and my first Julie Garwood.  Very light, easy read.  I liked the characters, Olivia was perfect not tedious or whiny.  Grayson was an alpha male to the nth degree.   There wasn't excessive violence or explicit love scenes so if you like it on the easier side this book is perfect.

3 1/2 cannolis

That Boy

That Boy
Jillian Dodd















Amazon Blurb -
You know, being friends with two cute boys does have its benefits.

There's Danny. Danny is a golden boy in every way. He has dreamy blue eyes and blonde hair that always looks perfect, even when it’s windblown or been stuck under a football helmet. He’s the boy every girl crushes on. The boy I get into trouble with, the boy I fight with, the hot quarterback no girl can resist, not even me. Being with Danny is like being on an adventure. He has a bright, contagious smile and abs to die for. He’s pretty much irresistible.

Equally crush worthy is Phillip. Adorable, sweet Phillip, who I have known since birth.  Phillip has dark hair, a perfect smile, brown eyes, and the sexiest voice I have ever heard. He’s the boy I talk to every night before I go to sleep. The boy who rescues me, the boy who can read my mind, the boy who is always there for me, the boy who tries to keep me out of trouble, the boy who irritatingly keeps getting hotter, and whose strong arms always seem to find their way around me.  And when he gives me that grin, I can never say no.

One boy will give me my very first kiss.
One boy will

teach me to make out.
One boy will take me to prom.
And finally, one boy will ask me to marry him.
They will both be my best friends.
But only one of them will be the boy I fall in love with.
Only one of them is That Boy.

*****

This was a sweet cute book.  It had me laughing, and I cried. JJ Reynolds is a wonderful, sassy, full of life character.  Such charisma, I just loved her.  Her two best buds in the whole world happen to be boys who both live next door to her.  Phillip, who she's known since she was born, their dad's were buddies since college, and Danny who moves in thinks she is just a girly girl till she pops him in the nose to set  him straight and the three are inseparable after that.

What a tom-boy Jadyn is!  She plays football with the guys, hangs with them over her gal pals since she can find them to be exasperating, lives life to its fullest just like her dad taught her.  The story takes you from the fourth grade all the way through to adulthood.  Her boyfriends, trials and tribulations all touch you to your very heart.  And through it all are these boys, Phillip the sensible one who always calls her Princess and ends her night by calling her before she sleeps, and Danny the carefree superstar who shows her the ropes and helps her in some of her silly jams.

If there is only one complaint I can make it's that I found  what goes on in Danny's life a little too perfect.  I won't elaborate more than that so there are no spoilers.  It's not deep you will get through it fast, but you feel good when you read it.

4 cannolis

Immortal's After Dark

I am loving this series!!  I read the first, A Hunger Like No Other three years ago, and just chomped through two and three in literally days!  I just get in these moods and Kresley Cole writes really well.  Funny how I adored the Night Huntress, and of late, I just can't get into it.  Nor can I come to pick up Anita Blake again.

I really liked Bowen's story, Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night.   Now on to Conrad Wroth, Nicolai and Sebastian's brother.  His is Dark Needs at Night's Edge.   What campy fun!!  I'm being good and reading in order even though I'm dying to read Rydstrom the demon king's :)  That's number six.

Want some light fun alpha male pnr, then pick up this series, you won't be disappointed!

Junes Wrap Up

Ahhhh, reading at the beach, I do it with gusto ;) love the beach, and love to read, what a perfect combo!  In two weeks we'll be in Carlsbad for a week right across the street from it so I look forward to much rest and relaxation.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, June has flew by!  Where the heck did it go?  Got some good reading in.  Not obsessing like I used to and just reading at my own pace enjoying other things as well.  Love love love the summer, and just wish it would never end.  Hhmmmm, how can I slow down time?

June's reading consisted of four books -

Snake Skin by C J Lyons.  Not bad, read it for my challenge hosted by Marce at Tea Time For Marce.  Pop over if you want to join. Read my review *HERE*

Another Piece Of My Heart by Jane Green.  Read it for June's book club choice, I picked it and it was decent, most certainly chic lit.  Review *HERE*

This Side Of The Grave by Jeaniene Frost.  I didn't review it, and it really didn't have the same impact for me that the others had.  I wonder if Bone's has lost his shine....

Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard.  I really liked it.  This man can write beautiful love stories.  Borrowed it through booklending.com, I enjoy borrowing kindle books this way.  If they are popular, you do have to wait.  I've been waiting for months for one by Laura Kaye, but I don't mind, I have so many books it's not even funny, click on it to check it out. My review is *HERE*

I'll be away for book club this month so I don't know if I'll read the choice, Falling Star by Diana Dempsey, this is chic lit with all caps!  I'll think about it.  I did just read for Netgalley a flipping frigging fantastic book called On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves.  This book was beyond great, I loved it so very much and the author left a comment on my blog!  Read my review *HERE*, pick it up from Amazon, sit back and just enjoy!  I myself couldn't put the darn thing down. Right now I'm reading some campy vamp love, No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole, she writes well and I'm enjoying this second in the Immortal's After Dark Series more than I did Kat and Bone's.  Though I WILL be getting Vlad's story Once Burned, just out from Frost.

I see the Fifty Shades nuts are still going strong on my blog.  I say, I know I've read some gals say lighten up it's just good fun, but honestly, it's not.  # 1 made for a great dark sad story about a twisted sick man, the rest just sucked a big smelly pickle.  Flame on folks *ducks behind chair*

Fast Library etiquette rant.  I reserved Another Piece of My Heart on June 11, it was due back the next day, and no one else had a hold on it.  I needed to read it by the 25th, and ya know what, it didn't get back to the Library till last week!  I hate when people do not return books!  I know stuff happens and it may be 1, 2, or even 3 days late, I know my kids have lost books under their bed, and I'm clueless to it till the over due note comes when it's past 10 days due so that I now count all the books I take out, but really folks, just dump the damn book in the return bin for heavens sake!

Yes I have many peeves, and yes,I am EXTREMELY opinionated on so very  many things.  But, this is my blog so I can do what I want :p

In True Blood news, my heart continues to break, though I think I know what Alan Ball is doing, he's trying to get into the Guiness Book Of World Records for most story lines in a single show.  There has got to be 10 damn sub-plots going on, and ya know what, they pretty much all suck :( 

Oh and quick promo for I guess what you'd call a meme hosted monthly by Carole from Carole's Chatter called Books You Loved, just click to check it out :)

Happy July people, take it slow, time goes way too fast!

On The Island

 On The Island
 Tracey Garvis Graves
 NetGalley Review
















Amazon Blurb -

Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that’s going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J. T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year. Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan’s summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives’ twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they’re stranded on an uninhabited island. At first, their only thought is survival. But as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.’s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
*****

 Wow.  Did you get that?  No?  Let me repeat it then WOW!!!  For those who read my blog, you've seen me whining about not finding a book that just lit me up.  One that made me laugh, cry and not want it to end.  Well guess what?  This is it!  I LOVED this book.  I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed books I've been reading, but I haven't felt like this since I read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Anna is headed for a tutoring job in a tropical setting with 16 year old cancer survivor T.J.  His parents don't want him to repeat the 10th grade and high school English teacher Anna takes the job on.  After delays from one flight to the next, hours spent in airports, and no record of passenger status, with what really should have been an omen to chuck the whole thing, they finally manage to get on a private sea plane.

The plane crashes, and the two survive the wreck to wash ashore onto this deserted island.  Hoping that they'll be found in days slowly turns to months, to years.  Anna struggles with the reality of maybe never being found, the fear of T.J.'s cancer possibly returning and of the fact that he is becoming a man.

The two slowly turn to each other not as teacher and student or adult and child, but as man and woman who have very real, strong feelings for each other.

This was a gut wrenching, heartwarming and at times nail biting story of survival and overcoming some of the most horrific obstacles one could ever imagine.  I don't know what I would have ever done, and this story takes you on the roller coaster of emotion ride as you get lost in the life of these beautiful people.

This is one of my favorite parts, Anna likes to cuddle and in her sleep she will often snuggle up to T.J. After an amorous dream she gropes at him in her sleep this is their exchange -

"I am completely mortified." I said
T.J. sat down next to me. " Don't be. "
"You must have wondered what the hell I was doing. "
"Well yeah, but then I just rolled with it."
I looked at him with my  mouth hanging open.  "Are you insane?"
"What?  You're the one that said I was adaptable. "

I LOVED both Anna and T.J.  What a breath of fresh air these two characters were.  Real and warm, not smarmy or whiny.  I laughed at times, at times tears fell,  I even held my breath at certain points.  The pages turned so fast it was amazing.   Please read this book Tracey has done a stupendous job crafting a tale that will leave your heart feeling happy.  I give it a 5 and that is rare from me!

5 cannolis

Magic Mike

 SPOILERS ladies so don't read if ya don't wanna know.
**************

This movie is being sold on all the talk shows and in the trailers as a fun movie. Well it takes a dark turn that I wasn't expecting and knocked the wind outta my sails. In the commercials it looks like they're this fun-loving bunch of guys, working together and hanging out when not at work. Channing is trying to impress Alex Pettyfers sister, while grooming Alex, aka "The Kid" to take his place in the strip club so he can move onto building his own custom furniture biz. Well that ain't it. One minute all is well and the next McConhaughey is this slimy backstabber, Alex is selling drugs, and Channing is left in the cold.

Oh and they have Joe Manganiello making the rounds like he is a frontrunner in the movie, and he is a background dude like Bomer, Rodriguez, and someone who I thought was Mickey Roarke's twin bro(at least in t his movie) Kevin Nash. So not fair!  Probably trying to capitalize on his True Blood fame. He did come out looking like an Oscar statue in one quick, and I mean quick dance scene.  Boy they wouldn't let him steal a second from Channing.

I know I know, sour grapes again, but I was soooo looking forward to a light fun movie.  I went with my daughters and we still had a fun girls night out.  My hubs kept telling my daughter Victoria who was putting her make-up on in the kitchen "They aren't gonna be there Vic, no Magic Mike stars."  I was cracking up.

Gabriel's Rapture

Gabriel's Rapture
Sylvain Reynard















 Amazon Blurb -

 Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell. Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the raptures of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?
*****

Tell me, who is Sylvain Reynard? This mysterious man has a way with words that consume you. Is he a man, I can't find any pics anywhere?  He rights such beautiful love scenes, I wonder if it's a woman pretending to be a man.

Gabriel's rapture was wonderful, I enjoyed it. Julia is such a great character. Unlike Ana Grey, Julia is not so lost that she won't walk away from Gabriel if necessary. The two ladies are so very similar in their innocence, but for the incident that Julia suffered under her ex Simon. That is where it ends. Where Ana is a slave to Christian's demented ways, Julia will not compromise her values if Gabriel is not honest with her and lets go of his desire to always protect her.  I did find the first book very similar to Fifty Shades in the intensity of the protagonist males, but it ends fully with this one.

Ah, Gabriel, where does one begin? Here is this Professor, so uppity in his likes, from his clothes to his fine scotch. So handsome and sexy, I find him such a contradiction! What an alpha, he growls for Christ sake! Yet he is a Professor who's expertise is Dante, one would never think of him when you think of a Professor. His love for Julia is impossible to put into words. It goes beyond anything he desires in life.

In this installment the two are a victim of a jealous vicious spoiled brat who is angry at being spurned. You feel so sad at what they go through due to her machinations. The question is, will their love survive what takes place? One can only hope.

 There is one scene that so puts just how alpha Gabriel is into perspective, out in the hallway of the university, Gabriel's attorney points his finger at Julia and Gabriel tells him "take your finger out of Miss Mitchell's face or I will separate it from your body." and you can just feel the intensity of the moment. You also get a blast of it every time he calls poor Paul the angelf*cker.

 A word about Paul, I felt bad for him. He loves Julia, and there have been books I've read where you actually want to see the girl with both men, but this was not one of them for me. He kind of just gets left out, no hea for him. Oh well. I recommend this book highly, if you haven't read #1, please do so first so that you can follow properly. I have reviewed it *HERE*. 

 4 cannolis