• Godsend by Sloan Johnson

    You can’t choose who you fall in love with. Despite knowing from a young age that he was gay, Scott Murphy couldn’t imagine life without Shelly. He threw away the labels and had eleven amazing years with her, but now, he feels even more lost trying to figure out how to move on after Shelly’s death. After nearly a year of watching Scott fade away, Shelly’s father forces him to start living again.

    As much as Chris loathes the idea of attending a bereavement group week after week, it’s one of the only places he can go in this town, other than the bar, to not feel so alone. When there’s nothing to distract him or dull his senses, he spends too much time obsessing over how he should have been able to help his sister. When Scott shows up at his group session, Chris decides that maybe some good can come out of his sister’s death. 

    There’s no denying that Chris is the first man to catch Scott’s attention in a long time, but how can he move on when just thinking of Shelly sends him to his dark place? 

    The road to recovery won’t be an easy one, but Chris is determined to help Scott see that life is still worth living. But before Scott can allow himself to admit what he feels for Chris, he knows he has to reveal the full truth about Shelly’s death.

    You can’t choose who you fall in love with. Despite knowing from a young age that he was gay, Scott Murphy couldn’t imagine life without Shelly. He threw away the labels and had eleven amazing years with her, but now, he feels even more lost trying to figure out how to move on after Shelly’s death. After nearly a year of watching Scott fade away, Shelly’s father forces him to start living again.

    As much as Chris loathes the idea of attending a bereavement group week after week, it’s one of the only places he can go in this town, other than the bar, to not feel so alone. When there’s nothing to distract him or dull his senses, he spends too much time obsessing over how he should have been able to help his sister. When Scott shows up at his group session, Chris decides that maybe some good can come out of his sister’s death. 

    There’s no denying that Chris is the first man to catch Scott’s attention in a long time, but how can he move on when just thinking of Shelly sends him to his dark place? 

    The road to recovery won’t be an easy one, but Chris is determined to help Scott see that life is still worth living. But before Scott can allow himself to admit what he feels for Chris, he knows he has to reveal the full truth about Shelly’s death.



    WARNING!!!! THIS IS A FIVE HANKY BOOK!!!

     I finished Godsend in one day.  I was crying in the prologue for goodness sakes.  Sloan had me emotionally hooked and invested at the beginning.  

    This books centers around a very controversial topic, dying with dignity or physician assisted suicide.  At this time, Oregon, Vermont and Washington States have Death with Dignity Laws.   As of right now, New Jersey and California are in the beginning stages of adopting such a law.    

    I know it might be difficult, but leave your feelings about the subject out of how you read this book.  Scott and Chris do touch the topic a couple of times throughout the book, it is not the main story of the book.  Scott does talk about his feelings about how his wife, Shelly, first talked to him about it.  How he reacted.  And later, Chris talks about it as it pertained to a client of his.

    This story really is about grief, and learning to live your life after loss.  It takes Scott’s father-in-law, Jim, to get Scott back to the land of the living.  Forcing him to go to a Survivor of Loss Group, Scott actually had appreciative thoughts of Chris when he sees him.  

    Chris see the new person in group and just can’t stop thinking of him.  It wasn’t until Scott stopped coming to group that he goes after him.  

    My favorite part of this book is that Shelly is a tangible character through the whole story.  She doesn’t move on until Scott does.  She is the one who spurs Scott to move forward with Chris.  

     

    Sloan Johnson is a big city girl trapped in a country girl’s life. While she longs for the hustle and bustle of New York City or Las Vegas, she hasn’t yet figured out how to sit on the deck with her morning coffee, watching the deer and wild turkeys in the fields while surrounded by concrete and glass.

    When she was three, her parents received their first call from the principal asking them to pick her up from school. Apparently, if you aren’t enrolled, you can’t attend classes, even in Kindergarten. The next week, she was in preschool and started plotting her first story soon after.

    Later in life, her parents needed to do something to help their socially awkward, uncoordinated child come out of her shell and figured there was no better place than a bar on Wednesday nights. It’s a good thing they did because this is where she found her love of reading and writing. Who needs socialization when you can sit alone in your bedroom with a good book?

    Now, Sloan is a tattooed mom with a mohawk and two kids. She’s been kicked out of the PTA in two school districts and is no longer asked to help with fundraisers because she’s been known to lose herself with a good book and forget she has somewhere to be.

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  • Release Day Blitz for A Doormat No More by Susan Eileen Walker


    Once upon a time, she loved him and thought he felt the same. But their marriage changed everything between them. Nowadays, as long as she does everything he wants, when he wants, and how he wants it done, there is peace in the house and things were fine between them. Only they weren’t, and it was all her fault. It was always all her fault.

    Then came the day she decided things had to change. That was the day she began a journey. The journey to break free from the abuse that had transformed her from a smart, funny, independent woman into a human doormat he used as his verbal kicking post. Along the way, she rediscovered herself, her strong, smart, brave self that somehow had gotten lost along the way. 

    And along the way, she found her joy again.

    *Based on true stories*





    Susan Eileen Walker was born in Maryland, a state her family never lived in. At the age of five, she fell in love with books and decided she would join those who created such magic. 

    Susan currently lives in eastern North Carolina with her sixty-five pound mixed breed furbaby, Honey, who is a combination protector, personal trainer, and alarm clock. 





    “What does your husband have to say about you becoming an enforcement agent?” Cody asked the next morning after she opened the office. He tossed aside the paper he had been reading while she went through her morning routine. She glanced down and saw that he had been reading her list of questions. 

    She tried to maintain eye contact with him, but had to glance away time and again to look over his shoulder, out the window, anywhere but in those piercing eyes. He saw too much when she met his gaze. She swallowed hard and dropped her gaze to her hands. The two gold bands on her left ring finger were nicked and scratched. The one-third carat diamond winked at her as if it knew a secret.

    Raising her head she straightened her shoulders. She forced herself to meet his inquisitive gaze. “He doesn’t know I’m thinking about it.”

    “Don’t you think you should talk to him?” Cody asked. He sounded surprised that she kept such a decision to herself.

    “Why? It’s none of his business,” she said, sounding bitter even to herself. She fought the urge to duck under her desk.

    Cody’s gaze sharpened. His eyes narrowed for few seconds while he studied her. Then he relaxed and picked up his travel mug. “Does he hit you? Hurt you? Beat on you?”

    “No,” she said, dropping her gaze again. Her fingers were knotted together on top of the desk. “He’s never raised a hand to me. He’s never had to. His words do enough damage.” She jumped when a tear landed on her fingers, wet and burning hot. Talking about the failing relationship added to the pain instead of detracting from it.

    “You should leave him if he hurts you, even if he only uses words,” Cody said, his deep voice gentler than she ever heard before.

    “I plan to. But it takes money to start over. Apartments, divorces and just plain living cost money,” she pointed out, wiping away her tears with shaking fingers. “He doesn’t know I’m working. I hope to save my paychecks for a few months until I have enough to leave,” she said, outlining her goal. 

    “Problem is, I’ll probably need a second job once I’m on my own. I thought you could train me to be a bail enforcement agent. That way I’ll be able to support myself once I leave Matthew by working here and doing bail enforcement as well.”

    She glanced up when Cody stood. His expression chilled her to the bone. He turned and stalked from the room. She stood to follow until she heard a string of inventive curses, which stopped her in her tracks. She stopped halfway across the room. Her shoulders drew up as if she were a turtle pulling into its shell. Her arms wrapped around her middle to protect herself and then the shaking began. 
    Cody was mad and it was her fault.

    What would he do? Would he call Matthew and share her secret? Or hunt him down and hold a “come to Jesus” meeting about how to treat a woman?

    She found herself barely breathing as she waited for Cody to calm down. Would he fire her? Or just yell at her for being stupid? When the back door slammed and glass shattered, she jumped. She rushed into the hall that ran down the center of the house. Cody was standing outside the back door looking at her through the hole where glass had been just moments before.

    She froze mid step, waiting for a second explosion. In her experience men who did something as destructive as shattering a window never dealt well with the aftermath. Before she could apologize his lips stretched into a wide grin and then he began to chuckle.

    She stared at him, afraid to move. Matthew often smiled too, just before attacking her with a verbal backhand. When she got upset at his words, he would take offense. “I was only teasing,” he’d say. 

    “You really need to learn how to take a joke.”

    But his insults were not jokes. They were degrading, belittling, cutting comments. With each slap, each insult, she faded, eventually becoming the human doormat Matthew walked upon on a regular basis.

    “Are you all right?” she asked in a small voice. She braced herself for anger.

    “I’m fine, but JJ was right. That old door didn’t survive my temper. Could you wake him up and tell him to go buy a new door? I’ll clean the glass up later.”

    She nodded. As he turned away, she called, “I’m sorry.” 

    Cody paused, then turned back to face her. He looked serious, somber, but not angry. “Why are you sorry? I broke the glass,” he said.




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  • Revealed by Caitlyn O’Leary




    Tortured Beyond Endurance

    Kelly Wachowski is kidnapped because she was found, like others across the world, on a day twenty years ago, all of them with no memory of their past, or how they got there.  Her adoptive parents raised her, and she has some special abilities, but still managed to live a normal life until it was all ripped away. Now she prays for death instead of enduring one more day at the hands of her tormenters.  The only thing that she can cling to is dreams of a long ago time with her childhood friend Noah.

    A Hero with a Secret

    Samson Noah Kailailmoku grew up on Kauai and is now a highly decorated officer and part of an elite Navy unit that is tasked to rescue Kelly.  He too was found twenty years ago, but his past was not publicized.  The closer he gets to Kelly, the more he can feel the pain of her torture, the more he dreams of their shared past.

    A Love That Was More than a Dream

    Even after being rescued, Kelly can’t escape her hell.  Something has changed.  She’s changed, and people are still after her.  When Noah realizes that Kelly is still in danger, he will move heaven and earth to ensure her safety.  The more time they spend together they realize that they have a shared past that is more than a dream.  But before they can have the shared future that they both want, they must first find and stop those that want them dead.



    Twenty years ago, children just appeared out of no where.  No matter where these children went, they could speak the language there and a few more, without so much as cracking open a book.

    Kelly (Kali) is kidnapped and is questioned and torture over and over.  All they want to  know?  Where did they come from?    I don’t know about you, but Kelly must be really strong.  There is no way I could have sustained the crap she was put through.  Thank God she is one of the Found.  

    Sam (Noah) has been feeling her pain.  His gift is to find things and people.  And by God he will find Kelly.

    This is not just your ordinary love story.  Although it seems their love was preordained, they were split apart, but once they are reunited, nothing will tear them apart. 

    This book is full of action, passion and just really cool characters.  The world Caitlyn O’Leary creates is a wonder.  I can’t wait until everything is all uncovered.  But for now, for their protection, the Found come together one by one to protect themselves.  They become Revealed.

    5 Hearts!


    Revealed for only $.99 cents for a LIMITED TIME!


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    Bonus Scene, at the very end of Revealed:

    Noah held Kali in his lap as the sun began to set over the Pacific ocean.  As it began to chill, she burrowed closer, and he remembered her doing the same thing as a child.  He remembered the meadow long ago when she had demanded to leave with him, she had been his best friend.  She was his life, and now she was giving him the world. 
    You’re wrong Noah.  You’re my life.  You mean everything to me. You’re my rock.
    If I’m the rock, then you’re the sun that I revolve around.
    Deleted Scene:

    It was all more than she could handle.  She had tried so hard to be brave in front of her parents, not wanting to worry them anymore than she had. 
    “Just let it out Kali.”
    “I’m fine.”
    “I know you are.  But Alfred’s death, it’s too much for me.  I can’t imagine how you feel since you actually met him.”  Noah gently cupped the back of her head, and brought her into the warmth of his chest.  She took in a deep breath, taking comfort and then let it out on a sob.
    “Yes baby, I have you.”  She clutched his shirt.
    “I don’t understand this, not any of it.  How could anyone want to hurt Alfred?”  His big warm hands stroked her from the crown of her head to her tailbone.  Again and again, he brushed against her, murmuring reassurances, nonsense. 
    “Noah, it hurts so much.”
    “And then they’ve hurt you so much.”
    “That doesn’t matter,” Kali said wiping her eyes.
    “It matters.  It matters to me.”  He brushed back the damp hair from her forehead and tilted up her chin.  “You matter to me.”

  • Guarding Nadia by Lainey Reese

    Nadia has been an erotic author of BDSM novels for years. She is no stranger to her work bringing out the crazy in some people. However, she was not prepared for a stalker and had no idea the lengths he would go to in order to have her.

    Desperate when the police are unable to help, Nadia turns to a highly rated security team for protection. Although they looked more like GQ models than bodyguards, Nadia puts her trust and her life into their safekeeping.

    From the moment she walked into their offices, Caleb and Jonas knew that there was nothing they wouldn’t do to keep Nadia safe. Upon discovering the type of books she writes, they are floored because she has no idea that they are active members of not one but two BDSM clubs and had both reached Master status long ago. 

    As the two men guard her body and strive to win her heart there is one out there who will stop at nothing to claim what his twisted mind has convinced him is his. Including the murder anyone who stands in his way.

    **Guarding Nadia is a Novella and comes with THREE never before Published (in a book) scenes from Lainey’s New York series.**


    This was a short read.  But it was really good.  I loved the whole concept of a BDSM author winds up with Masters as protectors from a crazy guy, although she didn’t know it.  I did guess who it was from the very beginning.  And no, I won’t tell you who it was, you will have to read it to find out.

    Caleb and Jonas are the type of men that gets me going.  They are hot and dominant.  What more can you ask of them.  Nadia needs them.  She was kind of naive with the whole stalker thing. 

    3.5 Hearts
    Lainey lives in beautiful Washington State. She’s the youngest of five and has always wanted to be a writer. Her first novel, -A Table for Three- was nominated for best debut novel of 2010 by the Romance Review and marked a dream come true for Lainey.

    With her third published release -Damaged Goods-, Lainey saw another of her dreams realized when she took a leap of faith to become a full-time author and left the safety net of a day job behind. Now she spends her days writing, with her dog at her feet and a cat curled in her lap, and asks herself a dozen times a day; how’d I ever get so lucky?

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  • A Restored Man by Jaime Reese

    Cole Renzo thinks his greatest challenge is to behave for the remainder of his term at Halfway House. Until he meets his new boss, Ty Calloway, a man who ticks off every box on Cole’s list of interests.

    A sought-after restorer and customizer of exotic and collectible cars, Ty had enough confidence to command what he wanted in life, until one fateful night changed everything. Almost two years later, he’s slowly rebuilding his life with great control. He’s defied the odds and works tirelessly to be the man he once was—but he still feels broken.

    Cole’s candor and unfiltered personality awaken Ty’s barely-remembered desire to greet each new day with a smile, while Ty’s unwavering acceptance of Cole’s quirks and brash humor makes Cole feel as if he fits in for the first time in far too long. When a nemesis threatens Ty’s personal restoration and the things he holds dear, Cole is determined to protect their relationship, even if that means sacrificing everything he’s worked so hard to achieve.

    But Ty will have to let his guard down, surrender control, and admit he needs Cole first, even if that puts himself at risk of breaking beyond repair.

    My Review

    This is the third book in the Halfway House Series.  I love the fact that at first you can’t tell who is the nurturer and who is the protector in Ty and Cole’s relationship.  In fact I think both were the nurturer and protector at different times.  

    I love Cole’s nicknames for Ty, but by far my favorite is My-Ty.  So cute.  


    While reading this book, I really didn’t feel like I was reading it, but rather living in it.  Kind of like a dream.  I could literally see Cole getting mobbed by his huge family.  I could see Ty watching Cole dane while sanding.  Only a great writer can do that.


    4.5 Hearts!

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    Add to Goodreads
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    Jaime Reese is the alter ego of an artist who loves the creative process of writing, just not about herself. Fiction is far more interesting. She has a weakness for broken, misunderstood heroes and feels everyone deserves a chance at love and life. An avid fan of a happy ending, she believes those endings acquired with a little difficulty are more cherished.

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