Fright Night Blog Hop

Hello Lovelies!

 

In Ohio, the trees are just stunning at this time of year. The nights are longer and cooler, perfect for curling up with a hot cuppa tea and a good book.

 

October is my favorite time of year to read spooky and paranormal tales. It’s the time of year when the creaking and groaning you’ve attributed to the house settling could possibly be an ancient vampire rising from his coffin. The howling wind rattling the windowpanes may just be a banshee’s wail. And the wolf you see roaming around under the light of the full moon could in fact be your neighbor who just shifted.

 

We can’t leave out the ghosties and goblins lurking the halls or the Fae dancing in their fairy rings atop the hill.  

 

I’m sure I’ve barely even scratched the surface of the beasties that could be roaming among you during the weeks leading up to Halloween. Between Shifters of all kinds and Vamps galore, the book world is filled with all kinds of weird and wonderful reads that will keep you occupied.

 



So here are a few my go to read:

 

Anything Molly Harper—Not only will her paranormal romances have you gigglesnorting, they will have quoting random Mollyisms and falling in love with the unbelievable amazing undead heroes or perhaps a naked werewolf or two.

 

The Midnight Liaisons series by Jessica Sims—Honestly, how can a series revolving around a paranormal dating agency not be entertaining?

 

The Scandals with Bite series by Brooklyn Ann—Finally a romance has passed by Dracula and went straight to the source of the gentleman vampire. Sexy, sensual, and full of bit you this series is definitely something you want to sink your teeth into.

 

Christine Warren—Love, love, love anything by this lovely lady. Out on the Prowl was the first were-tiger book that I read.

 

Heart of the Wolf series by Terry Spear—I devour her wolves. Any she has such as lovely choice to choose from, but trust me, you’ll want to read them all.

 

And I couldn’t leave out my favorite classics.

 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

 

The Vampyre by Polidori

What’s your go to paranormal read?

Giveaway time.

 

I have 1 print set of Molly Harper’s Nice Girls Series to giveaway.

 

Giveaway is open WORLDWIDE and ends November 17 (Winner will be announced on the blog on November 18, so be sure to check back)  

 

 

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Audiobook Review: The Undead In My Bed: Anthology by Jessica Sims, Molly Harper, Katie MacAlister

In "Shades of Gray" by Katie MacAlister, Noelle is a Guardian: a demon-wrangler, imp-banisher, and all-round secret protector of humans from the Otherworld. While working on the set of a ghost-busting reality show in a haunted castle, she meets a sexy vampire, and together they prevent a Master Demon from killing everyone in the castle.

 

In "Undead Sublet" by Molly Harper, executive chef Tess Maitland is banned from her five-star kitchen in Chicago to recover from "exhaustion". Choosing a random rental house in Half-Moon Hollow to spend time in, she's unaware that the house comes with a strange man. Even though Sam Masden's ex-wife has rented the house out from under him, the divorce settlement allows him access to it for another ninety days. With Tess unable to go anywhere else, and Sam unwilling, a war of epic proportions is declared - and romantic sparks and heavy pots fly.

 

Jessica Sims's "Out With a Fang" features Ruby Sommers, a lonely were-jaguar who signs up for a blind date through the paranormal dating agency Midnight Liaisons. When she arrives, she finds out that her date, a vampire, was the human she'd been in love with four years ago but was forced to dump.

 

Shades of Gray by Katie MacAlister

 

I’m not sure this novella was for me. I ended up giving up on the audiobook because of the juvenile way Noelle came off.

 

Rating: DNF

 

Undead Sublet by Molly Harper

 

When Tess Maitland beings laughing at jokes the produce made, she is forced to take a sabbatical from her five-star restaurant. Deciding to rent a house in Half-Moon Hollow she soon discovers that the owner of the house hasn’t been as forthcoming about the house when she discovers Sam Masden, the woman’s undead husband is living in the basement.  

 

Although Sam and Tess have declared war on each other, there is no denying that there is more between Sam and Tess than they want to admit.

 

I loved this novella. Like Harper’s other Half-Moon Hollow residents, Tess and Sam were simply amazing. Their chemistry was undeniable and I could not get enough of their crazy pranks and banter.

 

Rating: 4.5 Cups

 

Out With a Fang by Ruby Sommers

 

When were-jaguar Ruby Sommers is set up on a blind date through Midnight Liaisons, a paranormal dating service, her vampire date has one rule: Ruby must be blindfolded. When she discovers the mysterious vamp is the human she’s loved, things get interesting.

 

Another strong and steady story from Jessica Sims. While it was way too short, it gives a nice sense of who the characters are.

 

Rating: 4 Cups

  Book Details

Title: The Undead In My Bed: Anthology

Titles Included: Shades of Gray by Katie MacAlister Narrated by Abby Craden, Undead Sublet by Molly Harper Narrated by Sophie Eastlake, Out With A Fang by Jessica Sims Narrated by Leah Mallach

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

$25.91

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins 

Release Date:09-25-12 

Publisher: Tantor Audio

How I listened to it: download from Audible

Overall Rating: 4 Cups

 

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Speed Mating: A Midnight Liaisons Novella by Jessica Sims

Estrella may be going into heat, but she’s determined to remain in control. Just because she’s ovulating doesn’t mean she has to settle for just any man (or his beast). Her sexy alpha’s determined to find her a tiger to take care of her heat and father her child…but no one seems to look quite as good as the man in charge. Will giving in to her need for her alpha ruin her tenuous relationship with her clan or be a match made in heaven?

 

This novella originally appeared in the anthology FIRE & FROST.

 

Estrella’s going into heat. She can’t stop it, but she can control who she chooses to father her child. Turning to her alpha, Vic, for help in selecting a mate may have been the wrong thing to do. Now Vic is the only man she wants although she’s worried if she chooses Vic her rocky relationship with the pack will suffer.

 

I loved this novella. As far as novellas go, Speed Mating was by far the best novella that I’ve read.

 

Estrella was funny and exceedingly horny because she’s going into heat. Her theme song should so be, ‘If you’re horny and you know it, find a mate’. Because she’s going into heat, she knows that this mating will leave her pregnant. So not only does she need to find someone she trusts, she needs to find someone who will be a good father to her child.

 

While she wants Vic—and I mean wham-bam-thank-you-tiger, type of want—, she’s afraid, that since she’s a liger (part lion part tiger), giving into this temptation will provide even more strain with her and the tiger clan.

 

Determined to help her, Vic (who is practically drooling over her although she doesn’t see it) set’s her up with three tigers after a round of speed dating courtesy of Midnight Liaisons goes wrong.

 

Vic was yummy and tattooed and a were-tiger, I mean seriously what’s not to like? I got a taste of Vic in Must Love Fangs, so I was eager to see more of him in Speed Mating. While I most definitely was not disappointed, I did wish I could have seen a bit more of him.

Overall, I loved Speed Mating. Normally when reading a novella I feel a bit let down by how rushed it is or how unfinished it feels, although Speed Mating, while short, felt steady-paced and complete.

  Book Details

Title: Speed Mating
Midnight Liaisons Book 2.3

Author: Jessica Sims

Publisher: Jill Myles

ASIN: B00HKT6T1S

Release Date: 12/17/2013

Format: E-book

$0.99

How I Read It: Purchased from Amazon

Rating: 4.5 Cups

 

Midnight Liaison Series 

1.     BEAUTY DATES THE BEAST

2.     DESPERATELY SEEKING SHAPESHIFTER

3.      VIXEN (novella)

4.      OUT WITH A FANG (novellain the UNDEAD IN MY BED anthology)

5.      SPEED MATING (novella)

6.      SINGLE WOLF FEMALE (novella)

7.     MUST LOVE FANGS

8.      BEAR NAKED (novella)

9.      CLAWS & EFFECT (novella)

10.       WANTED: WILD THING

 

 

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THOUGHTFUL by S.C. Stephens Cover Reveal

Hello Lovelies!

 

 I have such a lush and sexy cover to share with you today! ;) Enjoy, my pretties and don’t forget to pre-order your copy today.

 

THOUGHTFUL by S.C. Stephens (February 24, 2014; Forever Trade Paperback and E-book)

The only place Kellan Kyle has ever felt at home is onstage. Gripping his guitar in a darkened bar, he can forget his painful past. These days his life revolves around three things: music, his bandmates, and hot hookups. Until one woman changes everything…

Kiera is the kind of girl Kellan has no business wanting-smart, sweet, and dating his best friend. Certain he could never be worthy of her love, he hides his growing attraction…until Kiera's own tormented heart hints that his feelings might not be one-sided. Now, no matter the consequences, Kellan is sure of one thing-he won't let Kiera go without a fight.

 

Pre-order now!

B&N | Books a Million |iBooks |Kobo |Google Play

About the author:

S.C. Stephens is a #1 bestselling author who spends her every free moment creating stories that are packed with emotion and heavy on romance.  In addition to writing, she enjoys spending lazy afternoons in the sun reading, listening to music, watching movies, and spending time with her friends and family.  She and her 2 children reside in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

Social Media Links

Website |Facebook | Twitter |Goodreads

 

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Return to Tradd Stree by Karen White

Facing her future as a single mother, psychic Realtor Melanie Middleton is determined to be strong and leave her past with writer Jack Trenholm behind her. But history has a tendency of catching up with Melanie, whether she likes it or not.…

 

Melanie is only going through the motions of living since refusing Jack’s marriage proposal. She misses him desperately, but her broken heart is the least of her problems. Despite an insistence that she can raise their child alone, Melanie is completely unprepared for motherhood, and she struggles to complete renovations on her house on Tradd Street before the baby arrives.

 

When Melanie is roused one night by the sound of a ghostly infant crying, she chooses to ignore it. She simply does not have the energy to deal with one more crisis. That is, until the remains of a newborn buried in an old christening gown are found hidden in the foundation of her house.

 

As the hauntings on Tradd Street slowly become more violent, Melanie decides to find out what caused the baby’s untimely death, uncovering the love, loss, and betrayal that color the house’s history—and threaten her claim of ownership. But can she seek Jack’s help without risking her heart? For in revealing the secrets of the past, Melanie also awakens the malevolent presence that has tried to keep the truth hidden for decades.…

 

Once again, Melanie is being haunted by former residents of the Tradd Street house she inherited. To make matters worse, her relationship with Jack has imploded, she’s pregnant, and now someone is claiming that the house she loves isn’t really hers at all.

 

I have read the previous books in the Tradd Street Series and adored them; however, Return to Tradd Street was painful to read. I ended up skipping over some of it.

 

Melanie crawled under my skin like a bad rash. In this book, she was annoying with her constant need to defy Jack. I mean seriously, why fight with someone over staying hydrated. Just drink the bloody water the man’s offering.

 

Overall, I cringe just thinking about this book. It was that bad.

  Book Details

Title: Return to Tradd Street
Book 4 in the Tradd Street Series

Author: Karen White

Publisher: New American Library (an imprint of Penguin)

ISBN: 978-0-451-24059-0

Format I read: Trade Paperback from Publisher

$15.00

Rating: 1 Cup

 

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Download Hell On Wheels by Julie Ann Walker for FREE

Hello Lovelies!

 

Once again, the incredible minds over at Sourcebooks have come up with another amazing offer.

 

In anticipation of Julie Ann Walker's upcoming Black Knights Inc. romance FULL THROTTLE, Sourcebooks is offering readers a chance to download the series starter, HELL ON WHEELS, for free!

 

Yep, dearies you read that right, HELL ON WHEELS the first book in the Black Knights Inc. series is FREE to download. Just click on the photo below and enjoy!  

 

 Hold On Tight...

 

 Ex–Marine Nate "Ghost" Weller is an expert at keeping his cool—and his distance—which makes him one hell of a sniper. It's also how he keeps his feelings for Ali Morgan in check. Sweet, sexy Ali has always revved his engine, but she's his best friend's baby sister...and totally off limits.

 

Rough Road Ahead

 

 Ali's never seen anything sexier than Nate Weller straddling his custom Harley—or the flash of danger in his eyes when she tells him she's in trouble. First something happened to her brother, and now she's become the target of a nasty international organization. With Nate, her life is in the most capable hands possible—but her heart is another story altogether.

 

Still not convinced, check out the amazing excerpt below!

 

“Ali—”

 

“What?”

 

Yeah, what? What was he about to say? Nate simply shook his head. “Nothin’.”

 

“Back to playing the strong, handsome, silent type?” she asked, her head tipping teasingly to the side.

 

“Handsome?” She thought he was handsome? Not that he should be too surprised, he supposed. He was no Brad Pitt, but he wasn’t necessarily Quasimodo either.

 

She shrugged. “Of course. You do know you’re, like...sorta drop-dead hot, right?”

 

Did he? Maybe once, years ago when he’d been young and carefree. Innocent of the world. But not now. Not with the years spent battling the elements. Not after having carried around the weight of what he’d been forced to do three months ago. He felt like an old man.

 

“Wow,” she shook her head, clearly surprised. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

 

“Get what?”

 

“That you’re beautiful.”

 

"Beautiful?" Okay, now he knew she was blowing smoke up his ass.

 

“Yes,” she slid her tongue into her cheek, her eyes bright with amusement as she leaned toward him. “Men can be beautiful.”

 

He laughed even as his spine snapped ruler-straight. He clasped his hands behind his back, gritting his teeth with the effort not to reach out to touch her. She muddled his thinking on a good day. And now, standing so close, especially when she lifted a hand toward his face? Well, that caused all conscious thought to stop dead in its tracks. Every single cell inside his body focused with a capital F on the feel of her sweet, pink-tipped fingers.

 

“Nate?”

 

When she said his name like that, he wanted to take on the world. “Hmmm?”

 

“You just laughed.”

 

“I do that on occasion.”

 

“Nate?”

 

He didn’t just want to take on the world when she said his name like that, he wanted to take on the whole friggin’ galaxy. “Yeah?”

 

“I’m touching you.”

 

No doubt about that. “I noticed.”

 

“You’re not jerking away. Acting like I’m carrying around a double whammy of hepatitis and bubonic plague.”

 

Double whammy of...he could only shake his head and fight a grin. She was simply adorable. No bones about it. And, yeah, that warm feeling slowly seeping through his veins could only be happiness. He remembered the sensation...vaguely. “What are you jabbering on about now, woman?”

 

“That fact that you don’t like for me to touch you.”

 

Was she insane?

 

“You don't like it when I touch you, do you?” she asked.

 

“I never said that,” he muttered through clenched teeth because she was in the process of running her hands over his shoulders. “I like it too much.”

 

 

Learn more about Julie Ann Walker and the Black Knights Inc. series HERE

 

 

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Cider Brook: A Swift River Valley Novel by Carla Neggers

Unlikely partners bound by circumstance…or by fate?

 

Being rescued by a good-looking, bad-boy firefighter isn’t how Samantha Bennett expected to start her stay in Knights Bridge, Massachusetts. Now she has everyone’s attention—especially that of Justin Sloan, her rescuer, who wants to know why she was camped out in an abandoned old New England cider mill.

 

Samantha is a treasure hunter who has returned to Knights Bridge to solve a 300-year-old mystery and salvage her good name. Justin remembers her well. He’s the one who alerted her late mentor to her iffy past and got her fired. But just because he doesn’t trust her doesn’t mean he can resist her. Samantha is daring, determined, seized by wanderlust—everything that strong, stoic Justin never knew he wanted. Until now….

 

 

Series: Swift River Valley #3 |  Author: Carla Neggers | Publisher: Harlequin MIRA | Source: Publisher | Rating: 5 Cups

 

Samantha Bennett has returned to Knights Bridge, Massachusetts to find answers to the three-hundred-year old pirate mystery her grandfather left her with and to make amends. When the cider mill she seeks refuge in from the storm catches fire, she never imaged the handsome mill owner and volunteer firefighter that rescued her was the one who made problems for her during her first trip to Knights Bridge.

 

Justin Sloan remembered Samantha from the first time he caught her traipsing around in Knights Bridge. Now that she’s back, he knows she’s seeking pirate treasure and the fact he found her journal proves it. But he still can’t seem to shake her from his mind.

 

As the hunt for answers grows, so does the attraction between Justin and Samantha. Although the same search for answers that are bringing them together could tear them apart.

 

Cider Brook is my favorite book in the Swift River Valley series thus far. Not only does it contain an amazing mystery as well as a sweet romance but it has pirates too! And you all know that pirates are my weakness!

 

Samantha is warring with herself. Her omissions caused a rift between her and Duncan McCaffrey, her employer and mentor, and now that he’s dead she can’t explain to him her reasons for sneaking into Knights Bridge. She also wants to uncover the mystery of the pirate that her grandfather left her. Then when she meets the residents of Knights Bridge as well as Duncan’s son Dylan, she feels as though she’s betraying them as well.

 

I liked Samantha. She was a flawed heroine, which made her real. She was also very determined to seek out the answers she wanted but she wasn’t so focused on meeting her goal that she blocked out her heart.

 

Justin is my favorite hero in the series. He’s quiet but not overly broody. There’s a strength to him that he lends to Samantha without pushing onto her. He’s also got a secret of his own.

 

Because of Samantha’s secrecy as well as her first trip to Knights Bridge, there is a bit of distrust between her and Justin, which is brilliant for the chemistry. There is also this amazing bond between the two of them because he rescued her from the fire at his cider mill.

 

Mingled in with Samantha and Justin’s story is the story of Loretta, Dylan’s attorney. I was so glad I finally was able to read more about Loretta. She’s been such a cornerstone to the Swift River Valley novels it was nice to see her get her own story. Loretta has her own ghosts to put to rest and it blended into the story flawlessly.

 

The mystery aspect of the novel was amazing. I enjoyed the way that each character reveals part of the mystery.  

 

The pacing of the novel was simply brilliant and I found it impossible to put down until the very last page was read.

 

Overall, I loved Cider Brook. One of the best romance novels I have read this year. Plus, it mentioned the Pirate Prince ‘Black’ Sam Bellamy—my favorite pirate—and any novel that mentions him gets extra points in my book.

 

I can’t wait to read what comes next in the Swift River Valley series.

 

Series Alert—Cider Brook is the third novel in the Swift River Valley series and while it does read well as a standalone, I highly recommend reading the entire series to get the feel of the residents.

The Swift River Valley Series

Secrets of the Lost Summer

That Night On Thistle Lane

Cider Brook

Christmas at Carriage Hill (novella)

Echo Lake

A Knights Bridge Christmas (novella)

The Spring at Moss Hill

Red Clover Inn