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review 2017-11-11 00:00
Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton): A Rock Star Surprise Baby Christmas Romance
Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton): A Rock Star Surprise Baby Christmas Romance - Blair Babylon Book Reviewed: Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton): A Rock Star Surprise Baby Christmas Romance
Author: Blair Babylon
Publication Date: 11/9/2017
Reviewed by: Tammy Payne- Book Nook Nuts
My Rating: 5 Stars


REVIEW
This is Peyton's story and oh I just fell inlove.
Peyton falls head over heels for Raji when they met at a party given by friends. Raji is still an intern, and Peyton is of course in Killer Valentine so it's not easy but Peyton would move the world for her. She doesn't want to ruin her future but then the unthinkable happens. What will Raji do? Can Peyton win her hand and heart?

Totally loved this hot, sexy, holiday story.

[a:Blair Babylon|7201465|Blair Babylon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1490320980p2/7201465.jpg]
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review 2017-09-18 18:12
This may have gotten off to a bit of a shaky start but...
Manic Pixie Dream Boy (gay rockstar romance) (The Underdogs Book 1) - K.A. Merikan

at the end of it all things worked out quite nicely.

 

When I first started reading this book I also started to worry...I like K. A. Merikan and am a total fan of their series 'Guns & Boys', I found 'Hipster Brothel' to be an adorable story and their 'Sex & Mayhem' series isn't on my TBR list it's on  my 'why haven't I read this yet' list, so I admit when I first started this I also started to worry because a small voice in my brain quickly began to whisper..."Stop, right now...stop reading and step away from the e-reader...even you cannot handle this much fluff." but there was another voice whispering and it was saying "No, you need to keep reading...have faith, things aren't always as they seem." so after a bit of internal debate during which no other voices decided to take part...thankfully, because it definitely would have been therapy time at that point, I came to the conclusion that I needed to keep reading.

 

Sometimes it pays not to follow your first instinct because if I had I would have missed out on a story that it turns out I really, really enjoyed. The first part of this book on it's own just didn't work for me and had things continued in that vein I probably would have either done a dnf or this would be a '2 what the hell did I just read' stars review, but that's not what happened and things clicked and connections got made for me and at the end of it all it's 4 'WOW' I really liked that stars. I'm quite comfortable saying that if the first part of the book had worked for me as well as the last this would easily have been a 5 star review.

 

I'm not often a fan of rock star stories and this one started out as 'rock star meets boy, rock star screws boy' fluff, fluff, fluff...until somewhere along the way boy started to challenge rock star, display a bit of himself and rock star started to realize the world didn't revolve around him...that maybe he head to do more than just be, if he really wanted this person to stay a part of his life. 

 

For me this wasn't a case of miscommunication it felt more like 'finally communicating' and when that happened I started to become invested and I became a fan. I absolutely loved the ending of this one it made me happy and was well done and I'm very much a fan of the fact that this is the first book in a series because there's more we need from this group...I want to know what's up with Mage and Dawn? Where will things end up with Sid and Stan? Also could we please see a bit more of the fanboy 'Baby Blue' I thought he was sweet and I'd love to see him get a story...see more! We definitely need more and I'm sure that I'm not the only one who wouldn't be opposed to more Dusk and Lolly/Abe.

 

********************

An ARC of 'Manic Pixie Dream Boy' was graciously provided by the authors in exchange for an honest review.

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text 2017-03-10 17:42
As You Wish (Rock Stars in Love Book 1) Kindle Edition by Elyssa Patrick Free!
As You Wish (Rock Stars in Love) - Elyssa Patrick

Love doesn't always follow the sheet music . . .

This Christmas, Portia Jackson needs a miracle to save her family's generations-old florist shop. What she gets instead is a car that breaks down during a blizzard. Help arrives unexpectedly when the infamous Aubry Riley pulls over. She only expects him to drive her to the gas station . . . she never expects that kiss. But Portia lives in the real world--she knows this is only a holiday fling for Aubry. Except it doesn't feel so temporary, and the last thing she wants is a broken heart.

Sometimes you have to sing some different notes . . .

Rock star Aubry Riley has no secrets. Thanks to the media, everyone knows about his troubled past. Six years have gone by since his world crashed, and now he's ready for a comeback. But first he needs to reconcile with his family--starting with his six-year-old daughter. A month-long vacation at a Vermont lake house affords him the perfect opportunity to take a step in the right direction. He doesn't need any other emotional entanglements, especially not with the bright-eyed florist he can't stop thinking about. But no matter how hard he tries to resist her, he can't. Now all he has to do is to convince Portia that there is nothing temporary when it comes to love.

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review 2016-12-28 00:33
#CBR8 Book 128: Wild at Whiskey Creek by Julie Anne Long
Wild at Whiskey Creek: A Hellcat Canyon Novel (Hot in Hellcat Canyon) - Julie Anne Long

Glory Hallelujah (yup, that's actually her name) Greenleaf is the only one in her family who's never broken the law or deviated from the straight and narrow. Unlike most of her other family members, who only seem to leave Hellcat Canyon to go to prison or when they die, Glory was going to become a star, using her songwriting and singing talent to make it big. Of course, then her brother Jonah was arrested for meth dealing and she had to use all her savings to help pay her mother's mortgage, and now she's still impatiently cooling her heels, trying to make ends meet by waitressing badly.

 

Deputy sheriff Eli Barlow has loved Glory since he was twelve years old, but any chance he had of winning her heart was crushed when he had to arrest her brother, his best friends, for meth dealing. He can't entirely understand what she's still doing in town, considering she had several demo tapes recorded and was all set to leave to get herself a music career. He hates that he had to break her heart (and his own) by arresting Jonah, and desperately wants to make things right between them. When Hollywood talent comes to town and takes notice of Glory's talent, Eli realises that the best way to win this woman's heart is to make sure she can leave Hellcat Canyon forever. 

 

Julie Anne Long will always have some leeway with me, having written one of my favourite romances of all time, What I Did for a Duke. I can respect that she wants to try new things, having written historical novels for most of her career. I thought Wild at Whiskey Creek worked moderately better than her first attempt at contemporary romance, Hot in Hellcat Canyon, although she still has quite a way to go to reach the levels of quality or entertainment value of her best historicals. In her biographical information for this book, Long reveals that she herself wanted to become a rock star and did both singing and guitar playing, but writing became her career choice instead. She certainly seems to know what she's talking about with regards to songwriting and composing (I know nothing about guitar playing, and only barely learned to strum a few chords during whatever basic lessons they gave us in music class in secondary school). I will also give her this, the earworm indie hit that is referenced throughout the story ended up getting stuck in my head as I read the book, despite the fact that it was a fictional song, that I'd never heard. I still ended up reciting the catchy chorus in my head. So kudos to you for that, Ms. Long.

 

Couples who have loved one another since they were children can be a tricky thing to pull off, but Ms. Long manages pretty well here. Since Eli and Glory's brother Jonah were best friends and grew up inseparably together, it seems natural he would also have spent a lot of time with Glory during that time. It's established that neither Eli nor Glory are silently and celibately pining for the other, they both date and have other relationships, but share one scorching and very memorable kiss when they are both single. Sadly, this is just before the bit where Eli has to arrest Jonah and send him to prison for years, making the fiercely loyal Glory shun him like the plague. Eli hates that he had to hurt her, and hates the reckless Jonah quite a bit as well, for giving the law-abiding Eli no choice but to do his job. 

 

After pretty much rudely telling everyone in town where to stick it before her brother got arrested, because she was getting out and becoming a big singing star, Glory has been forced to apologise to a lot of people and help support her widowed mother and assorted hard-up half-siblings by waitressing. The arrival of Hollywood TV crews, filming new historical prestige show, set during the California Gold Rush, also brings handsome television and movie actor Franco Francone to town. He pisses off Eli by joyriding his Porsche way above the speed limit through town, and making the moves on Glory, who is clearly the most interesting of all the single ladies in Hellcat Canyon. She's amused by his attention, but mainly flirts with him to make Eli jealous. Eli, on the other hand, has been set up with one of the makeup artists on the show, and tries his best to forget his impossible infatuation with Glory, who he's always known is meant for far better than him and the little mountain region they're from, no matter how lawless and hopeless most of her family members are. 

 

Because they've grown up together, there is no need for Eli and Glory to get to know each other. They have a shared past and just need to get past the conflict caused when utterly decent and law-abiding Eli arrested Glory's beloved, but rather careless brother. It's quite clear that Glory has a lot of talent, and needs to get her chance to show the world. So they need to figure out how they can reconcile their romantic feelings for one another, when Eli doesn't really have any plans of leaving Hellcat Canyon, while Glory wants nothing more than to get away.

 

Having written eleven Regency novels set in the little English town of Pennyroyal Green, Julie Anne Long is good at creating a cozy setting for her books. The towns of Hellcat Canyon and Whiskey Creek clearly have their fair share of colourful supporting cast that help populate the stories, many of whom the reader was already introduced to in the first book in the series. You by no means need to have read the previous book to enjoy this one, but it's quite clear that several of the secondary characters here will feature more prominently in future books. 

 

Sadly, while these books are perfectly entertaining as you're reading them, they're not very memorable. I read this at the beginning of December, and already I'm having trouble remembering specific details about the plot, except that Glory's younger half-brother and his clueless selfishness really annoyed me, plus there was a little too much of the romance plot that was Eli or Glory jealous of the other, but not actually talking to each other. Oh, and Ms. Long needs to realise that now that she's writing contemporary romances, she NEEDS to acknowledge that in the modern world, couples use some form of protection and talk about it before they fall into bed with one another. Really, it doesn't need to take up a lot of page space, but the fact that in both this and her previous contemporary, there is no talk of condoms, other contraceptives, the possibility of STDs or pregnancy. It's a minor point, but I saw it referenced in another review of this book as well, and I absolutely agree. 

 

This book was on Kirkus Best of 2016 list of romances. They clearly have very different taste in romance from me, since the excellent The Hating Game wasn't even on the list, while several romances that I found entertaining, but really nothing special were represented. While this was a better contemporary than her previous one, Julie Anne Long will have to do better to truly impress me, and I'm not going to rush out and get her next book.

 

Judging a book by its cover: Woman in a denim miniskirt stands in a meadow with her back to the camera, holding an acoustic guitar over her shoulders. am assuming this is supposed to be Glory, but based on her description in the book, I don't think it fits her at all. She doesn't seem like the sort of person who would wear pink, for one thing. I'm also really annoyed by the askew "k" at the end of "Creek". I'm sure it's supposed to be playful and whimsical, but it just sets my teeth on edge.

Source: kingmagu.blogspot.no/2016/12/cbr8-book-128-wild-at-whiskey-creek-by.html
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review 2016-12-27 02:21
#CBR8 Book 126: Managed by Kristen Callihan
Managed (VIP Book 2) - Kristen Callihan Sophie Darling (sadly nowhere near as awesome as my favourite romance heroine with Darling as a surname) is on her way to a job interview in London and unexpectedly and happily finds herself upgraded to first class. Her joy is somewhat lessened when very handsome, but supremely grouchy Gabriel "Scottie" Scott is seated next to her, outraged that one of the two seats he's purchased has been allotted to someone. Nonetheless, cheerful and mischievous Sophie decides to try to crack handsome guy's crabby demeanour (at this point she doesn't know his name) by both flirting and teasing him and once she discovers that he's clearly deeply uncomfortable on planes, she does her best to distract him, so he doesn't have such a bad time of it. Before they arrive in London, they discover that the interview Sophie is on her way to is as social media rep for the rock band Kill John, which Scottie manages. So indirectly, if she gets the job, he will become her boss. Obviously, he can't get involved with one of his employees, so any flirting between them has to stop right there. Once Sophie does meet the band, there is a brief conflict involving her paparazzi past, but she gets the job, and will now be going on the European tour with the band. In "could only happen in a romance novel" plotting, both Sophie and Gabriel have trouble sleeping and it's making them both irritable and less than efficient. They discover, through plot contrivance that only when in the same bed can they get a good night's sleep. So Gabriel proposes that Sophie start sleeping in his bed, totally platonically, of course, even though everyone with eyes in their head can tell that both he and Sophie are absolutely gone for each other, and Scottie's famed iron control is about to crack every time some other guy so much as glances in Sophie's direction. Emmalita, one of my fellow romance enthusiasts over on CBR, absolutely hated this book and Gabriel in particular. I can agree that Gabriel isn't the most likable of heroes, but I read him as a lot less emotionally manipulative and controlling than her. Like so many alphahole romance heroes, there are issues in his past that have led to him becoming an icy control freak and he's terrified of letting loose or letting anyone get close to him. He clearly has massive abandonment issues and believes that as long as he doesn't let anyone get close (be they a romantic interest or his friends/found family, the band and Brenna), he will never be left alone again. He also clearly has some serious anger issues that he takes out with no holds barred fights for money every so often. Does he behave like a stuck-up d*ck for a lot of the book? Yup. Did I see what Sophie saw in him? Nope, not really. Did I hate the book? Not even slightly. Sophie is a lovely character and I liked that she was working hard to make up for a past in which her life choices both with regards to career and boyfriend made her do some pretty rotten things. The third act complication where her sleazy ex suddenly enters the picture again and creates tension between her and Gabriel felt incredibly unnecessary and made me roll my eyes. Still, I liked her, and this book passed the time just fine. Can I clearly remember the plot now, three weeks after reading the book? Nope. Do I regret paying money for it? Not really, as Callihan self-publishes these and I have very much enjoyed her Game On books enough that she gets a chance or two extra because of them. It's a perfectly forgettable book. If you want to read a really good book involving a heroine surnamed Darling and a guy with a lot of control tendencies, read Courtney Milan's lovely Unraveled instead. Smite is a million times better in the hero department than Gabriel is. For better Callihan books, check out her Game On series. Based on this, I doubt I'll be paying any more money for future instalments of the VIP series, unless they are very reduced or free. Judging a book by its cover: While the previous book in the series, Idol, had brighter, sharper colours on the covers, this one is in more muted pastels, showing what I'm assuming is supposed to be Gabriel sitting around waiting for the band to finish, or something? It's not a very exciting romance cover, but then again, neither was the first one in the series. Callihan is clearly not going for steaming covers for these self-published books.
Source: kingmagu.blogspot.no/2016/12/cbr8-book-126-managed-by-kristen.html
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