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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Heart Signs Blog Barrage & Review & Giveaway

Cari is giving away a PDF copy of Hearts Signs to one lucky commenter during the tour.  Don't forget to leave a comment.
Title:  Heart Signs
Author:  Cari Quinn
Publisher:  Ellora's Cave
Length:  45,000 words
Sub-Genres:  Contemporary, Erotic

BLURB:

The heart has a language all its own...

Rory Fowler has taken Sam Miller’s billboard orders for the last two years, but they aren’t to advertise, they’re love notes to his wife. Sam’s most recent billboard about his wife’s passing hits Rory hard. When she calls Sam to offer condolences, it sets off an unexpected chain of events that ends with Rory in Sam’s apartment...and his arms.

Reading Sam’s love letters tugs Rory into the romance between him and his estranged, now-deceased, wife. Their lives soon intertwine so completely that Rory wonders how she’ll ever forget the man who makes poetry out of emotions she’s fought to dismiss. And plays her body even more skillfully than he writes love notes.


Consumed by guilt and grief, Sam is shocked by the feelings Rory arouses in him, sexually and otherwise. Now he’s not thinking about yesterday as much as he’s looking forward to tomorrow. He’s just not sure if he’s capable of moving on...or if the woman who helped him find the will to really live again will be by his side.


EXCERPT #1:


“Yes, I remember you.” Sam’s long pause encouraged her knee to jitter more. “I thought you were a man, Rory.”
“Why? Because I like sports?”

“No. Of course not. Well, maybe,” he admitted. “You know so much about them.”
“Yeah, I do. Women enjoy sports. Newsflash—some even play them.” Rory hoped she sounded as if she were teasing rather than irritated. She wasn’t mad. More than anything she was a little amazed. She couldn’t believe they were finally having an actual conversation.

Some women idolized rock singers or movie stars. Other than her long-held and unavoidable crush on Tom Brady, the only man she’d ever crushed on from afar was Sam Miller.

Another woman’s husband. Or he had been. He still was, she supposed. And always would be. Death didn’t erase what had come before and she had no doubt that he’d been completely, irrevocably in love.

“I know that. But the kind of shows you watch—”

“You mean the ones with potty humor?” She shrugged, knowing he couldn’t see her. “What can I say? I have a juvenile outlook on the world.”

“Thanks a lot.”

The amusement in his tone bolstered her self-assurance. “Maybe you didn’t think I was female because I don’t put smiley faces at the end of all my sentences?”

She most certainly was not a smiley face girl. Actually she’d be more likely to use emoticons if they indicated less politically correct gestures. The occasional well-placed graphical middle finger, for example. Not that she’d ever do that with customers, but some of her interfering relatives like her boss? A definite possibility.

“No, because of your name. Rory isn’t usually feminine.”

“Neither am I.”

EXCERPT #2 (ADULT):


“I should give you my insurance card,” Rory said into the silence, drawing her full lower lip between her teeth. “I’m covered. I know these things cost a mint to fix, but it doesn’t look like the scratches are too bad. There’s only a couple and they’re pretty shallow.” She traced her fingers over Bertha’s wounds and Sam’s cock hardened to steel. “I’m really sorry.”

The last thing he cared about at the moment was damages or insurance. For the first time in forever, his skin was on fire, and it wasn’t from the beaming September sun. This was all her. This nameless woman who’d sparked something inside him and set it ablaze without even knowing his goddamn name.
Nor did he know hers. It didn’t matter. He’d know what her lush, giving body felt like beneath him and how she stretched around his length when he slid deep. That was enough.

Adrenaline buzzed through his system, a heady drug he hadn’t experienced in so long. He’d be damned if the feeling escaped before he’d made good use of it. Whether it was the rush from the minor fender bender or simply her, he didn’t care. He would ride this wave until it bottomed out.

“If you want to exchange information, I live eight blocks from here. 16 Kimchee Road,” he said, his gaze trained on her face. Any hesitation and he’d back away. Get in his car, drive back to his apartment and take out his frustration on his punching bag.
But there was only interest. Only fascination turning those remarkable eyes from mist gray to the ashen color of the smoke that pumped out from the exhaust when an engine was burning oil.

“You free?” Sam finished, hoping he sounded less idiotic than he felt.
Free. What an insane question. He’d never be free again, not completely. And here he was asking a total stranger if she happened to be something that sounded so impossibly wonderful that his breath stumbled. What he wouldn’t give for freedom. Or to forget, just for a little while. Maybe, just maybe, she could give him that.

Small price to pay for some scratches.

“Yes.” She grabbed the flat disk around her throat and flipped it between her fingers. “I’m free.”

Unthinkingly, he dropped his gaze to her license plate. FowlEr.

To anyone else, that would probably seem like an odd chicken joke or something. But after all the sports emails he’d exchanged with Rory, he knew exactly what it meant.

“I’m average height, spiky dark hair. Big earrings.”

Sam checked her earrings, decided the giant silver triangles definitely qualified. The spiky dark hair was a given. She’d left out that her eyes were the color of storm clouds and that her cheeks had the rosy glow of a skin care commercial.

So he’d finally met Rory Fowler. Somehow his crazy reaction fit. She’d sucker-punched him twice now. First with her voice. Now with her everything.

He wrenched open his car door without sparing her another glance. “Follow me.”

EXCERPT #3 (ADULT):

“I’m definitely hungry.”

Sam flicked a look toward the door that led to the kitchen. “I might have stuff for a sandwich.”

Rory walked her fingers up his belly, stirring all sorts of appetites that had nothing to do with food. “Not hungry for a sandwich, Sam.”

He took a long breath. If he could’ve picked the ideal woman to have a one-afternoon stand with, Rory would’ve been the perfect choice. She made things so easy.

God, it had been forever since anything had been easy.

“Okay. Good.”

“Would you rather just go sit and talk?” His pained expression must’ve given him away because she laughed. “I’m fine with hanging out for a while. We’re both buzzy from the accident.”

Was that why he felt so electrified? “Wasn’t barely one. Just a bump.”

“Enough to get our hearts racing. That and the sunshine set the right conditions for some harmless feelings of attraction.” She shrugged. “Not surprising the rush turned into something else.”

She was giving him an out. Yes, adrenaline and excitement had carried him through the ride home and into the house. But now nerves were winning. And that small voice at the back of his mind that told him he shouldn’t bring anyone into his world, not when he’d likely lock them right out again afterward.

But she wasn’t asking for a lifetime commitment. They didn’t have to be any more to each other than they were right now. She knew the score. If they both found release and moved on without any hard feelings, what was the problem? Whether they attributed it to drive-by lust or the aftereffects of a fender bender didn’t really matter.

Thinking too much had gotten him into the stasis he’d lived in for over two years. He wanted out. Could even smell the scent of freedom beyond the barred gate inside his head. He just needed to reach for it.

“I’d rather not talk. Or hang out. If it’s all the same to you.” He cleared his throat. Kiss her, dolt.

Instead she stepped into him, tipping her face upward until their mouths brushed. Her soft lips heated under his, encouraging him to press his tongue against their parted seam. She made a sound of acquiescence, of excitement. The deeper he slid, the more she made the noise. Almost a purr. Carefully, he reached up to hold her head in his palms, tilting her so he could explore. She tasted like grape bubblegum. Sweet, a little wicked. A lot sexy.

This would be okay.

His heart was pounding so fast that eventually he had to break their kiss to breathe. Then he came back for the next round, using his thumb to stroke her lower lip while he licked the upper. Again that whimper in the back of her throat. His hard-on grew, straining against his well-worn jeans. If he hadn’t been afraid of scaring her, he would’ve tugged down the zipper to give himself room.

Then she did it for him.


REVIEWS:


“Final verdict? Lovable characters, intense emotions and mind melting hot sex. Erotica doesn’t get any better than this.” 4.5/5--MBR's Realm of Romance

“HEART SIGNS is a fascinating, compelling and heartwarming love story filled with raw emotion and sensual heat. After INSATIABLE and UNWRAPPED, this book has earned Cari Quinn her third perfect 10 from me. The combination of heat and emotion does me in every single time and Cari delivered on both in HEART SIGNS!” 10/10--Pearl's World of Romance 

My Review:

Ms. Quinn has done it again.  She has written a sexy book full of emotions and characters that you want to meet.  I will admit at first that I didn't quite "get" the book in the beginning but I knew that I could trust Cari and her writing.  She has managed to write a book that had me scratching my head, squirming, sighing and then crying tears of joy. 

Rory Fowler is me.  I swear Cari wrote Rory with me in mind.  I'm everything that Rory is at her age.  Friends with men, some with benefits and some not.  Sports nut that has a regular hangout, not to girlie but can clean up nice and a feisty personality.  Rory also has feelings buried deep with her and she has a lot to give to someone if she ever let someone in.  (Of course, I'm much older now and very happily married and settled.  Well that and I'm NOT a Tom Brady fan.)  Rory is a contradiction to herself and to Sam. 

Sam Miller is a man in pain for different reasons.  Reasons only he sees and feels.  I felt like Sam was a little too hard on himself.  I like a hero that shoulders some of the things from his past, but I felt like his dead wife should have taken some of it, too.  That was the one problem that I had with the book.  I never felt like Dani's part was ever fully explained to me.  No disrespect for the dead but I really wanted to slap Dani.  She made Sam the way he was now and I hate it for it.  On the flip side, it took someone like Rory to bring him back to the land of the living.

Sam and Rory are two characters that captured my heart from the beginning and never let go.  Both of them had some growing up to do and I feel like they will do that together as a couple.  Their love for one another is strong and will continue to grow.  While the sex was hot, it wasn't overly done.  In fact, for a Cari Quinn book, it was fairly tame but it fit the story perfectly.  Heart Signs is a romance book pure and simple.  Its about two people that were lost and found each other and learned to live again.

I highly recommend Heart Signs and as always, Cari Quinn has another winner on her hands.  :)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bestselling, multi-published author Cari Quinn wrote her first story--a bible parable--in 2nd grade, much to the delight of the nuns at her Catholic school. Once she saw the warm reception that first tale garnered, she was hooked. She attempted her first romance in junior high, long before she'd ever read one. Writing what she knew always took a backseat to what she wanted to know, and that still holds true today.
Though she also fires up her computer as a graphic designer, proofreader and editor, she can't resist the lure of disappearing into a world of her own creation. Now she gets to pen sexy romances for a living and routinely counts her lucky stars.

The only thing she loves more than writing is hearing from readers! Please contact her through one of the ways below.

Email: cariquinnauthor@gmail.com
Website: www.cariquinn.com
Friend Cari on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads under Cari Quinn as well!

AVAILABLE AT:


Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Signs-ebook/dp/B007575XG2/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-signs-cari-quinn/1108625292?ean=9781419938306

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Donovan's Bed by Debra Mullins-Review

In this battle of the sexes, the ultimate prize is love.

The Calhoun Sisters, Book 1

Sarah Calhoun is bound and determined to restore honor to the family name the only way she knows how—make her late father’s newspaper, the Burr Chronicle, the most successful in the Wyoming Territory.

Haunted by past scandal, she knows one misstep, one misunderstanding, could bring disgrace back down on her head. Yet that doesn’t stop her from running an article about the insulting Jack Donovan. The blasted man is shopping for a wife as he would a horse!

Jack finally has the house in the kind of town he’s always dreamed about. Now all that’s missing is a wife. At first, he thinks Sarah’s scathing article about his quest is a good thing—until he finds himself hounded by hordes of young girls, spinsters and widows. Still, he can’t stop thinking about the sassy newspaper editor who started it all.

Sarah is as determined to ignore her impossible attraction to Donovan as she is to uncover his mysterious past. But the harder she digs for his secrets, the deeper he hides them. Until there’s only one rock left unturned. His heart.

Originally published in February 2000 by Avon Books.

Product Warnings
Contains sensual love scenes and enough barn-burning passion to heat the coldest winter night.
Review:

I'm going to start this review with a plea...BUY THIS BOOK, READ THIS BOOK and be prepared to laugh, sigh and fall in love with characters that leap off the pages.  Most people don't realize that I really enjoy reading historical romance books and especially western historical books.  Donovan's Bed one western historical romance that I will forever cherish and think about for some time to come. 

Sarah Calhoun is a feisty, funny and independent woman that *gasp* has a job in her town.  She loves her job and her town.  On fateful mistake in her teens as labeled her a harlot in the town and the gossips won't let her forget about it.  She feels like she still has to atone for this mistake.  When the mysterious Jack Donovan shows up in town with money and a past that he won't talk about, the reporter in her seeks the truth.  The woman in her awakes and trying to separate is easier said than done.  Sarah is a fascinating woman.  Strong in her resolve that she will always be tainted and never marry but soft and tender when it comes to Jack.  He brings things out in Sarah that she thought were long dormant. 

Jack Donovan is a man with a past that he is not necessarily proud of but he wants it to stay buried.  He did what he did to survive and was good at it.  It was a means to an end.  When he decided to leave that life behind and settle in Wyoming Territory, he made his mind up that he wanted a home, children and a wife.  He never thought that Sarah, a working woman, would be that woman.  His conflicted thoughts and emotions regarding Sarah were honest and led to some of the funniest moments in the book. 

The scenes with Sarah and Jack were heartwarming, sexy and funny.  The more they tried to resist each other, the more the sexual tension built.  *sigh*  When Jack figured out that Sarah was exactly what he needed in his life, the chase was on for him to convince Sarah.  While this book was sexy in parts, the sexual tension build up was terrific.  Jack brought out in Sarah her passionate side that she had long denied but was a big part of her.  Sarah was soothing to Jack's somewhat tortured soul. 

The secondary characters especially Sarah's sister, Suzi and the wounded marshall were well written.  I look forward to Suzi's book in April.  The town that Ms. Mullin's built is real and charming.  The townspeople were typical for the time but not caricature's.  They were heartwarming and funny.

I highly recommend Donovan's Bed for anyone looking for a sexy, heartwarming western historical that has captured this reader's heart and I look forward to the next installment.

5 Harlie's and a recommended read


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Winners!!!!!



I want to thank everyone for coming out and playing along.  It really means a lot to me.  I will have more giveaways soon, so don't forget about me.




Deadly Delivarance

True Random Number Generator  7Fedora Chen is the winner.  Please email me at maw1725@gmail.comPowered by RANDOM.OR





Floor Time


True Random Number Generator  1
True Random Number Generator  6
Didi and Tammy Ramey  Liz will be contacting you regarding your prize!  
Blog hop winner
True Random Number Generator  17True Random Number Generator  22Momma8385 (Jeanne) and Anonymous (Patricia) are my winnners.  Please email me at maw1725@gmail.com  I choose two...  :)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

After Midnight by Sarah Grimm Review

Thirteen years—that's how long Isabeau Montgomery has been living a lie. After an automobile accident took her mother's life, Izzy hid herself away, surviving the only way she knew how. Now she is happy in her carefully reconstructed life. That is until he walks through the door of her bar...

Black Phoenix singer/front man Noah Clark came to Long Island City with a goal—one that doesn’t include an instant, electric attraction to the dark-haired beauty behind the bar. Coaxing her into his bed won’t be easy, but he can’t get her pale, haunted eyes nor her skill on the piano out of his head.

Can Noah help Isabeau overcome the past? Or will her need to protect her secret force her back into hiding and destroy their chance at happiness?

Review: 

This book intrigued me from the start.  When Ms. Grimm started promoting it, I was reluctant to buy it and read it for a couple of reasons.  The lie that Isabeau had constructed for herself after the death of her mother hit too close to home for me.  I, too, played piano has a child and got burned out by the constant playing, practising and rehearsing for recitals.  Plus, it didn't help that my last piano teacher when I was a teenager was mean and would hit my hands every time I messed up.  I begged my parents to quit and I did to never play again until a couple of years ago when my parents finally gave away my piano.  I sat and played for hours letting the notes and emotions that I had come out through my fingers.  When I finished playing, my parents were awestruck and clapping for me.  It was a huge part of my life growing up and I don't think I will ever stop playing in my head.  Also, I was kinda shaking my head at having a rock star and a piano player prodigy has my hero and heroine.  I asked myself when I finished...what took me so long to read this exceptional story?

So much of Isabeau's life as a child was playing the piano.  She lived it, breathed it and she blames her mother's death on herself for wanting to stop playing the piano.  What started off as a young woman battling her demons and her complete attraction to Noah ended up being an emotional journey for Isabeau and Noah.  The both learned what was important to them and not other people.  To learn to trust, love and not be afraid anymore.

Isabeau at times could be a little too hardheaded and I wanted to shake her shoulders.  She seemed too caught up in herself and the walls that she had put up that I didn't see how Noah was ever going to break them down.  She didn't think that she was worthy of love from Noah and didn't like the feelings that he evoked from her.  Once those walls starting crumbling, she began to see that love can heal her and make her stronger than she ever thought possible.

Noah is the ever persistent, sexy for his own good but all around good guy.  He realizes the mistakes that he made when he was younger and doesn't want to repeat them.  When he walks into Isabeau's bar, he realizes that his life has changed forever.  What he didn't realize is how hard it would be for him to fully gain her trust and love.  Can Noah ever forgive himself for pushing Isabeau too hard for himself and his career? 

I am so in love with Sara Grimm and her writing.  She paces the story extremely well not dwelling on the emotional thoughts of Isabeau and Noah for too long.  She makes you feel the story, not just the emotions of her characters.  I felt like I was watching their love story from a booth at the bar.  I didn't want to ever interrupt and just let the characters do the showing and telling from their perspective.  The secondary characters never intrude and are as endearing as Noah and Isabeau.  In fact, I can't wait for Dom's story.  *wink*  While this story is listed as "hot" on the publisher website, I felt like their bedroom scenes were more sensual and more emotional than any other that I have read in awhile.  Good job, Ms. Grimm.

I hope that you go pick up After Midnight and see if you agree with me.  I have never cried at the beginning of a book and then cried at the end.  After Midnight was an emotional read that made me think about my own life and how it might have been different. 

5 Harlie's and a highly recommended read

Friday, February 10, 2012

Floor Time by Liz Crowe Review & Giveaway


MAJOR GIVEAWAY TIME

In honor of my birthday today, I am giving away an autographed copy of Floor Time to one luck person.  Just comment about anything...Liz loves beer, soccer players, her Louisville Cardinals, beer, soccer players.  Oh wait, I've mentioned beer and soccer players twice.  Silly me...


UPDATE AS OF MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012.  LIZ WILL NOW BE OFFERING TWO (2) SIGNED COPIES.  STAY TUNED...WINNERS TO BE PICKED TOMORROW.

Jack Gordon is Ann Arbor's most delectable bachelor. At age thirty-five, he's made millions as a top-selling Ann Arbor real estate broker and has the right connections to close a deal by any means necessary. With his rugged good looks and compelling personality, he has a virtual black book most men would kill for and he uses it often, never settling for one woman for very long.
While his D/s past remains buried, exactly where he wants it, an undercurrent of boredom and dissatisfaction runs through his life now. A disastrous experience years earlier made him swear off the whole scene, but the more Jack suppresses his natural Dom, the more his frustration grows.

Sara Thornton, a rookie in the real estate game, has fast-tracked herself to the top of the Ann Arbor market. Her life reflects a disciplined and focused routine, exactly the way she wants it. However, as her career takes off, the fulfillment she seeks remains inexplicably out of reach. The one thing she knows for sure, she will not join the Jack Gordon groupies in her company, no matter how tempting that might seem.

A chance encounter, then a difficult transaction, throw Jack and Sara together and the sparks fly high and hot and often. Forced to confront the compulsions that gain momentum with each sizzling encounter, their relationship seems to spiral out of control until Jack finally admits what he needs, and shows Sara what she's been missing.

Review:

I dare you to read any book of Liz Crowe's and not fall in love with her, the author.  I dare you, in fact, I triple dog dare you.  If you have never, ever read a book by Liz Crowe, go now, buy a book, any book of hers and savor it.  Devour it, re-read it and then buy another.  You get what I'm saying?   I've actually reviewed her entire Turks Trilogy on my blog.  Okay, enough of the Liz love.  This is supposed to be my review of Floor Time and I'm really at a lose to how to start.  So here goes...


Take two selfish people, add a dash of competition, a dollop of lust, two cups of trust issues, stirring in that one person is dominating and one person is not fully willing to submit and what do you get?  Floor Time by Liz Crowe.

Jack Gordon is the uber, dominant male.  He is sexy, flawed, has fears, can basically snap his fingers and women flock and doesn’t believe in love anymore.  Once bitten, twice shy.  He’s problem with that is he wants to put his past behind him, yet that perfect woman has eluded him.  That is until he meets his match in every way…Sarah Thornton.  He’s need to dominate slowly re-emerges and the attraction between Jack and Sarah is instant and often.  Unfortunately, that attraction isn’t without problems.  Lust, sex and attraction between them aren’t the problem; learning to trust and letting go is the problem.

Sarah Thornton is the most independent, career focused woman that I have read.  She’s so focused that she has lost sight of any type of close relationship with people.  From their first coupling (***needed a hose and still fanning self), she slowly realizes that submitting to Jack is the ultimate power play in her life.  She does however, struggle with trusting Jack fully and can’t see past her independence to give herself over fully to Jack.  I sometimes struggled with Sarah.  I felt myself identifying with Sarah more than I cared to and it brought forth some issues that I had when I was dating my now husband.  It was a very rocky road for us and it will be a rocky road for Sarah, too.

I will admit that read their story twice and will re-read it again.  Their love and attraction for each other is fierce and off the charts.  If you are looking for a sweet story, this is not for you.  You will read one of the most gut wrenching, emotional, off the wall sexy and utterly exceptional stories that will leave you wanting to read more about Jack and Sarah and the road that they take with each other.  Their struggles are between themselves and with one another and getting there in the end will not be without problems and doubts. 

I really urge you to pick up Floor Time and read about Jack and Sarah.  The beginning of their journey together is one of the most emotional filled stories that I have read in a long time.  I look forward to reading about their journey together soon.

***Did I mention that the sex is beyond hot and you will need a hose? *** Oh wait; if you’ve ever read Liz, then you already know that, right?

5 Harlie’s and a Highly recommend read.


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Deadly Deliverance Blog Barrage-Review & Giveaway

Giveaway Alert


The author is giving away a copy of Deadly Deliverance to one lucky commenter.  Leave a comment and your email for a chance to win.  The contest will end on Monday, February 13, 2012.  Good luck.


BLURB:

Things get personal for Sam Brower, undercover task force detective for human trafficking, when his niece, Autumn, goes missing. To make matters worse, he’s forced to work with his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Conover, former DC cop, when she’s assigned to a cold case involving his long lost brother.

After infiltrating the gang responsible for the multiple abductions, Sam and Lisa try to unravel the stories behind the kidnapping of Autumn and the disappearance of Luke before their cover is blown.

Undercover work doesn’t lend well to trust. Even if they work together like a fine tuned instrument, will Lisa and Sam be able to salvage love after all they’ve been through?

EXCERPT:

“Ahh!! Oh!! Yes! Yes! It feels so good! Right there! Please, don’t stop, please,” Lisa Conover muttered. “Harder, harder! No! Don’t leave now!” She groaned as she pounded her fists into the hardwood floor. “Damn it! Why did you stop?” she asked Godiva, her twenty-two-pound silver tabby cat, who had jumped off her back and now sauntered over to a sunny spot on the carpet, flopping down in a very unladylike manner. Just like Sam used to do years ago, gets me feeling comfortable and then he takes off.
Lisa’s aching back muscles were so tight from hunching over her computer ten to twelve hours a day every day for the past weeks. She needed a massage. Better yet, she needed a vacation.

She rolled over onto her back and stared above at the open-beamed ceiling of her log cabin in the North Carolina mountains outside Hickoryville. She studied the accumulation of dust bunnies along the beams.

The setting sun cast shadows across the room as she gazed out the two-story floor-to-ceiling windows on one wall. The view of the tranquil scenic mountains in its resplendent fall glory replaced some of the angst she felt about her work. She relaxed and stretched her arms above her head. Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t had any lunch today.

She stood, trying to stretch her still-aching muscles by turning side to side at the waist, touching her toes—or attempting to, anyway.

Then maybe she could get a few more hours of work done before bedtime.
After putting down fresh water and food for Godiva she opened the fridge, hoping to find something for dinner. She knew what she would find but she looked anyway. It was empty except for a couple of eggs, and an older-than-she-knew container of yogurt she couldn’t trust anymore.

She glimpsed down at Godiva, who had already finished her dinner. “I think I’ll run down to The Barn and get something to eat. You can hold down the fort here for a while, right?” she asked Godiva, who sauntered away licking her lips.
She walked the short distance from the kitchen to the corner of the large open room to her desk, which held her state-of-the-art computer system with three screens and a laptop. She sat down to start turning everything off when the phone on her desk rang.

“Conover Investigations, Lisa speaking.”
“Hi, is Sam Brower there?”

“Sorry, but I haven’t heard from Sam in years. How did you get my number?”
“This is the last number I had for him. I really need to talk to him ASAP.”

“Maybe I can help you. What’s the problem?”
“No, I need to talk to Sam.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help you. Give me your name and a number where he can reach you, and if I hear from him I’ll let him know you’re trying to get in touch with him, okay?”
“My name’s Luke and he can reach me at…” Then the phone line went dead. He had hung up.
What is it about men? They never say good-bye.

BUY LINK:
Bookstrand.com - http://www.bookstrand.com/DEADLY-DELIVERANCE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I live on a peninsula in the mid west coast of Florida with my husband, 2 cats, and AJ, my long haired Chihuahua.
I wrote my first story in the fourth grade in the form of a play which actually was produced by my teacher for parents and students. I continued writing and majored in English in College. I practice everyday to improve my craft.

I love reading almost as much as writing and have filled my book shelves with my favorites, i.e. Harlan Colban, Eliza March, Johanna Lindsey, Kathy Carmichael, Terri Garey, Karen Rose, LuAnn Rice, and Bobbi Smith just to mention a few, as well as all the classics.
I am a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), TARA (Tampa Area Romance Authors), PRO, CSI (Crime Scene Investigations), just to mention a few.


Review:

From the very first sentence of the book I was hooked.  This is what romantic suspense is all about.  Its not too techie, alpha male dominated and the heroine is very strong.  The villain isn't revealed until the very end and the subject matter is current and very relevant.  We pick up the story with Lisa answering her phone thinking its an existing client but what she gets is her world completely turned upside down.

Lisa Conover is the kind of heroine that I like.  She has flaws, a past that she doesn't really want to talk about, independent, strong and a hint of sexiness.  She lives a comfortable life and is for the most part happy.  When she bumps into her ex-boyfriend, she's not sure what to think except that she can not go through the pain of getting wrapped up in him and then have him leave again.  What sets Lisa apart from most romantic suspense heroine's is that she is smart.  She's an ex-cop and understands the world around her.  She isn't afraid for herself and stands on her own two feet.  She's not a smart ass and doesn't beat around the bush when she is talking to the men that she is working for or with on the case.  She's not so much tough but she's the type of woman that you could have a girl's night out with and she would have your back at the time.

Sam, oh Sam.  I loved him from the beginning.  Sam is the anti-alpha male.  He's strong, sexy, smart for sure but he also realizes that women aren't dumb and shouldn't be treated like a piece of furniture.  He treats Lisa as an equal in every sense of the word.  They are partners in and out of the bedroom.  When he and Lisa broke up, he decided that they only way to live was to go deep undercover for months at a time.  Its what kept him going through those years.  Being with Lisa again and working with her makes him rethink what kind of live her really wants. 

The plot in the book is a common thread through out the series.  I have not read the first two books in the series but I plan on it very, very soon.  Ms. Confer weaves a great deal of detail about human trafficking and the inner workings of gangs but doesn't beat you over the head with it.  Her touch is spot on and she doesn't make your head spin with unwanted filler about how the inner workings of the FBI database works.  Trust me, I've read books like that and I got bored.  (If I want to read that, I'll re-read a Tom Clancey book and I've read all of his books at least twice)  She weaves the plot with the romance perfectly.  The plot and the romance between Sam and Lisa are intertwined together and it made me root for them that much more.

While the book is on the more sensual side, don't expect graphic details in the bedroom.  Ms. Confer uses the time that Lisa and Sam have with one another well and lets the emotions and feelings of her characters play out.  Sometimes, I got frustrated with them but that just made their romance that much better.

I highly recommend Deadly Deliverance for any romantic suspense fan.  You can put away your dictionary of over used romantic suspense jargon to read it.  Ms. Confer knows that she has intelligent readers and it shows in her writing.  She respects the reader and now this reader is hooked.