From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken comes a new story in her Seaside Pictures series…
The music industry called me a savant at sixteen when I uploaded my first video and gained instant fame. I started writing music for every big name until I decided it was time to break out on my own.
The only problem?
Stage fright.
All it took was one fan provoking me during my first concert, and I went full Sia on everyone’s asses. Basically disappearing into a shell of what I once was — ignoring friends, family, and most importantly, one of my mentors, Drew Amherst, from the band Adrenaline.
It doesn’t take long for him to track me down and give me an ultimatum.
Get help or I can say goodbye to opening up for him on his solo tour.
I know I can’t let fear win, but the crippling social anxiety just may kill me — at least it feels that way until Piper Rayne walks into my life with all her bullshit about empowerment, rainbows, and butterflies. She smiles all the damn time. Never has a bad thing to say about anyone, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure she dreams about world peace and the cure for cancer.
There isn’t a problem she can’t solve.
Until me.
Maybe I’m impossible, but she makes me think that there’s hope — dangerous to a guy who’s at the end of his rope, dangerous to a guy who’s falling for the very girl who has the power to destroy the last remaining part of him that’s still able to perform.
They say God created the earth in seven days.
My manager gave her twenty-one.
She says I provoke her.
Well, here goes nothing…
**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.** Buy Now!
FACT: I fell into love with Meghan March with her Dirty Billionaire Trilogy. However, my heart was hers after her Mount Trilogy. Those two series cemented her as one of my top 10 favorite authors. One of the best heroines she’s written is Magnolia Maison. For lack of a better word, she is one BADA$$ heroine. She stands toe-to-toe with March’s most significant anti-hero, Lachlan Mount. So why should you read the Magnolia Duet, and by extension, Madam Temptress?
Magnolia Marie Maison. The main reason to read this duet and Madam Temptress is her main character. Magnolia, like Lachlan Mount, is a flawed character. She has manipulated people in her life for her own gain. She’s profited off of her body. She’s killed in order to save herself. Her self-doubt in this duet is profound, as it shows the depth of her soul. In Creole Kingpin, Magnolia doubts she deserves love due to her past sins. She’s feeling ennui, in need of a change. And isn’t that many of us. While Magnolia hides her self-doubt behind a strong, powerful exterior, her soft underbelly mimics the souls of Meghan March’s readers. That March can craft a character who feels bigger than us yet similar to us too illustrates her power as a writer. The human experience is written all over Magnolia’s character while setting it in a story beyond our own experiences. This is WHY I love this duet. Magnolia is all of us, and she receives the beautifully poignant happily-ever-after worthy of her sacrifices.
Moses. The hero of Madam Temptress loves Magnolia beyond himself. Nothing makes my heart beat faster than a hero who is fallible yet has determined to live his life devoted to his love. Moses will lay his life down for Magnolia, and he loves her beyond himself. He doesn’t sacrifice his sense of self for her. He continues to stand in his values and self-worth. He’s masculine and heady in his $exuality, but he will bow to Magnolia as his queen. Moses is the only one suited to Magnolia, and March writes this powerful, transcendent chemistry between these two. You find yourself wrapped deeply in their love story.
The story. As she does so well, March writes romance with suspense and drama that fill each page. There is oftentimes no time to breathe as the story twists and turns, and no ever seems safe. For Madam Temptress, we find ourselves back in New Orleans, a corrupted population of people who will protect each other at any cost. And much is lost in this story, so be prepared. Yet, this is the essence of Meghan March. She doesn’t write safe romance; she takes chances with her characters and their lives, causing her readers to hold their breath at every turn of the page. Madam Temptress is page after page of cinematic moments ending with a breathtaking finale.
The nostalgia. I, for one, hated to leave Lachlan and Keira Mount. Thankfully, March allows us to revisit them. They play parts in this story, including their own chapters. If you are a Mount Trilogy fan like me, then this duet, specifically Madam Temptress, is a MUST READ.
Honestly, I don’t know how Meghan March does it time and time again. We invest ourselves in her stories. She takes us on journeys of heartbreak, action, suspense, and love. With Madam Temptress, we are rewarded with a story of second chances, not just between Moses and Magnolia. More importantly, this story is a second chance for life. March suggests that no sin can diminish the opportunity to live an abundant life, and thankfully, she writes the most beautifully rich life for my favorite March heroine, Magnolia Marie Maison. Grab this book now!
Making the jump from corporate lawyer to romance author was a leap of faith that New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Meghan March will never regret. With over thirty titles published, she has sold millions of books in nearly a dozen languages to fellow romance-lovers around the world. A nomad at heart, she can currently be found in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, living her happily ever after with her real-life alpha hero.
There is something special about Layla Hagen’s brand of romance. You can depend upon it to warm your soul. Since Hagen has moved into the world of the Winchester family, she shows what she does best: crafting stories with heroes and heroines that we can trust to get us to that happy ending with a little bit of strife, but a whole lot of loving. Hagen’s newest book, Just One Kiss, gifts us with all of that and more.
Using the single mother trope for this book, Hagen takes one of the Winchester family’s requisite playboys, the “flirt,” Ryker Winchester, and she places him directly in the life of her single mother heroine, Heather. As far as Ryker is concerned, it is “interest at first sight.” Heather finds herself in a bar at the end of a relationship. Her ex humiliates her publically and Ryker steps in to end it. She catches his eye, but he is unable to get her information as his new guitar becomes damaged in the altercation. Days later, Heather returns to the bar to find Ryker as a way to thank him for his help, and there are instant sparks between these two. Ryker “shoots his shot” and they embark on the journey of falling for each other. The complications of this story lie in Ryker’s day job as a financial wizard and Heather’s worry that she’s moving too quickly into a relationship, putting her daughter’s happiness at risk. This worry causes her to put up walls against Ryker, yet he is determined to win her and her daughter over.
Ryker is Hagen’s usual hero. He’s stalwart, dedicated to his family, and persistent. He’s a “good guy” with no intention of hurting Heather and her daughter, Avery. For a “playboyish” kind of guy, he falls quickly for Heather. However, he really has no intention of stepping back. Instead, he works diligently to win Heather’s heart. His family is important to him too, so he tends to be the family member who worries about his sisters. He is the type of hero that Hagen tends to craft easily.
As the heroine, Heather’s concerns are valid. This is a woman who has been burned by the few men in her life, including her daughter’s father. Yet, Ryker’s magnetism is too much for her, and she falls easily under his spell. What this causes in Just One Kiss is a constant doubt and internal censure as she fears moving too quickly with Ryker. She, however, continues to fall fast. There is never any real concern that Heather and Ryker won’t end up together. Hagen wants us to think there could be an issue, but it isn’t profound enough. If I have any criticism about Just One Kiss is the sense that the inciting moment in the story is seemingly greater than it actually is. Sometimes, it reads as a bit too manufactured. I know it’s necessary for story-telling, but it should feel more organic. For example, Ryker never questions his interest in Heather. Not ever. When the inciting moment occurs and Heather and her daughter leave, it doesn’t feel natural because we know Ryker will chase her. He loves them too much. For this to be more effective, more self-doubt from Ryker throughout the story would have made it more impactful, I think.
Just One Kiss is a sweet tale of a man and woman who find each other when they aren’t expecting it. Ryker and Heather’s chemistry flies off the page, and their happily-ever-after is expected from the start. If you love romance where the characters love family and fall deeply for each other, then you’ll want to read Layla Hagen’s brand of romance, specifically Just One Kiss.
Those are three things that have defined my name – Ryker Winchester. It’s what I’m good at. I always get exactly what I want.
I was completely unprepared for Heather.
She challenges me. She melts under my touch. She’s everything I never knew I wanted. She’s a feisty single mom, and I can’t get enough of her. The way she gives in to me is intoxicating, but I need more than hot nights and sexy dates.When she introduces me to her daughter, something shifts inside me. No one has ever played me for a fool like that kid can do with a single dimpled grin.
I want to keep them both.
Mine to love.
Mine to protect.
Heather doesn’t trust easily, but I’ll prove to her that we’ll have an incredible future together.
I’m Ryker Winchester and I’m relentless when I go after what I want.
Welcome! My name is Layla Hagen and I am a Contemporary Romance author.
I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later. I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world. And I drink coffee. Lots of it 😀
The cool breeze from the ocean slammed into my aching chest the moment I burst through the door. The wind carried with it the salt and water from the sea, blending in with my tears.
How could he?
There were murmurs and whispers and a few laughs as my former classmates looked on, and I could only guess what they were all thinking.
Did she actually believe him when he said he loved her?
Yes. I had.
I foolishly believed every word that passed through his lips from the moment he first pressed them against mine. How could someone who kissed so beautifully tell such ugly lies? I looked to the sky as if it had the answers. All I found was the full moon and its callous glow shining down on me like a spotlight. Here she is, it seemed to say, the fool who thought Vaughn Rees had a heart and wouldn’t break hers.
“Tyra!”
Hearing my name shouted over the music, I rushed down the wooden stairs. I never realized before now how many there were. The stilts the blue beach house sat on were fourteen feet high to protect from flooding. Somehow, despite my blurry vision, I managed not to fall. A broken neck was all I needed to match my broken heart. The moment my sandaled feet touched the sand, I looked around in desperation. The parking lot would be the first place my friends would check.
Not ready to face my devastation, I slipped into the shadows underneath the house. I couldn’t outrun them, so I’d hide until they gave up—if they gave up. I held my breath while my tears flowed freely. A moment later, the obscure figures of my friends darted past.
They’d witnessed everything.
Vaughn’s betrayal.
My humiliation.
And the smug look on the bitch’s face who’d stolen everything from me.
My cheeks heated in shame as I recalled how I’d turned and ran in defeat. I should have stayed and killed them both. Hindsight really was twenty-twenty.
Swallowing the sob that threatened to spill, I leaned into one of the stilts, wrapping my arms around the beam. With my forehead resting against the cold, damp wood, I closed my eyes. It was the only thing keeping my knees from buckling.
Vaughn had warned me. A year ago and almost every day since, he told me that we could never be, but my arrogance hadn’t allowed me to believe him. That and the way his eyes defied the words his lips had spouted.
I’d chosen to listen to the teachings that a person’s actions spoke louder than words. So, naïvely, I clung to hope. And tonight, Vaughn had shown me the truth.
Seeing him with her, touching her, giving her what only should have belonged to me was more proof than anyone could deny. And the look in his eyes when he finally noticed me witnessing it all…I hugged the sturdy wood tighter when I felt pieces of my heart tumble into the rage building in my gut. As much as it burned, it was still just an ember. Only time would tell when the fire would finally roar. My stomach was twisted in a knot so tight I feared that any moment now, I’d break in half. It was inevitable, wasn’t it?
I was in the midst of inhaling the salted air when behind me, I heard the soft crunch of sand. I froze, humiliated once again that he’d caught me like this—pathetically weeping and irreparably shattered. I didn’t have to turn to know it was him. I hadn’t made a sound. The darkness underneath the house cloaked me entirely. Yet it still didn’t matter.
From the moment our gazes first connected, Vaughn and I became a siren’s song. We’d always be drawn.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
With my eyes still closed, I pictured him with his hands tucked inside his jeans, his cold gaze assessing and calculating. Like everyone else, I’d mistaken that look for boredom, but Vaughn was never as disinterested as he was careful. Months of allowing me to hold him close, and I had yet to find out why. I realized then that as much as Vaughn had let me in, I’d only ever had one foot in the door.
“But you’re not—” I squeezed my closed eyes tighter, hating the way my voice broke and how it barely carried over the sound of the waves crashing in the ocean or the music playing from the beach house above us. I still couldn’t find the courage to turn around. “You’re not sorry you did it?”
“No.”
“And when you said you loved me…are you sorry for that, too?”
It took a long time for him to answer, long enough for hope to creep its way back in and long enough for Vaughn to crush it with a single word. “Yes.”
“Why should I believe you?” I asked, anyway. It was weird, wasn’t it? Weird that I could argue his point after catching him with his pants down and his dick inside—I dug my fingers into the wood, ignoring the pain. It was more than weird. It was pathetic.
Vaughn sighed, and my guess was because I wouldn’t take the hint he was waving around on a sign the size of a billboard with flashing lights so bright they blinded. Maybe I was still too head over heels to see it. He might not have meant it when he said he loved me, but I had. Love didn’t just fade the moment the other pushed the big red “abort” button. Instead, you’re left standing alone in the place that had once been your Eden and was now your own personal hell.
“I’m bored, Tyra. I don’t know how else to put it.”
“So, you put it inside of that bitch instead?” My voice had become granite, and if I weren’t clinging to this fucking beam as if it was a life raft, I would have patted myself on the back. I felt him closing in—felt his warmth, the strength of his muscles, and even the rhythm of his heart as if he’d taken me in his arms and made it all better.
If only he would.
My fists balled against the wood.
“Look at me,” he demanded as if he had the right.
I shook my head, denying him. I was afraid that if I did, I’d see that his heart was no longer mine. A moment later, I felt his hands on my shoulders, gently turning me to face him.
“I made a mistake,” he said once he’d captured my gaze.
I knew he wasn’t talking about tonight. Just as my heart, on its last desperate stitch, begin to splinter, I felt the telling tap of his finger on my shoulder. It was subtle, like a phantom touch, only it was very much real. Immediately, I started to melt into the comfort of his strong arms. The demand to know why he was doing thiswaspoised on my lips when I felt the bite of his fingers keeping me at bay.
His rejection rippled through me, and I no longer cared about his reasons. I closed my eyes, hating him, and wondering how many times I’d have to disgrace myself. How many before I accepted that this was real?
Vaughn and I were over.
But then…how could something that never truly started end?
While Vaughn had been sure to remind me that we weren’t exclusive, he’d often forgotten that fact himself. Once he’d sunk his teeth into me, it became a full-time job scaring off the guys at our school, and when he wasn’t savagely defending his territory, he was attending to my every need. There’d been no time or desire for anyone else.
Until now.
Pushing him away, I forced my spine to straighten. “It took you a year to figure that out?”
Callously, he shrugged, and I realized the glow that usually shone from his green eyes was gone. The wind ruffled his light-brown hair, and the ache to run my fingers through it as I had so many times before was almost greater than the one in my chest.
“I was looking for something different, and until now, you provided that.”
“You mean up until I let you—” I choked on the words caught in my throat. God, why had I given him so much? I’d waited a year, and still, it wasn’t enough. Swallowing past the lump, I tried again. “Until I let you fuck me.”
His eyes quickly narrowed. “Let’s not forget,” he said slowly and with a touch of cruelty, “you begged me not to stop.”
“I thought maybe—” I stopped, wondering if it was wise to admit just how stupid I’d been. Vaughn’s eyebrow perked, daring me to continue. “I thought maybe you’d change your mind.” Summer’s end had been rapidly approaching, and I’d never been more desperate. I believed in the idea of soulmates, and from the moment Vaughn first kissed me, I knew he was mine. That kiss was the reason I stopped fighting his pursuit at the start of my senior year.
Vaughn obviously didn’t feel the same, judging by the way his body stiffened, and his nostrils flared at my confession. “You mean you thought you could manipulate my feelings with sex?” If possible, his tone became even colder than before. “While you were a phenomenal fuck, Bradley, no pussy is that good.”
I looked away, unable to meet his gaze, my tone despondent when I spoke. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
“Finally, something we can agree on,” he immediately spat. “No, it doesn’t matter now.”
I never realized before how much power Vaughn had over me. For a moment, we listened to the waves crash. For a moment, I wanted to walk into the night sea and let them drown me.
“Just tell me one thing,” I urged as a lone tear slipped down my cheek. I vowed that it would be the last I shed over him. Vaughn said nothing while he waited. “Of all the girls you could have screwed, why did it have to be her?”
“Because no matter where this relationship goes, no matter if or how it ends, this is love right here. It’s not the kind that bowls you over so nothing else matters. It’s not the kind that fizzles when the lust is gone. It’s the kind that starts with two people being best friends and grows until they become ‘your person.’ That’s the best kind of love there is.”
There is so much offered up in the romance world. I’ve said this before in other reviews, but it’s always amazing to recognize the depth and breadth of the types of romance a reader can find. There is romance that makes your insides hurt from the depth of his angst. Then, there is romance that titillates readers as it reveals the power structure of the dominant/submissive. There is romance that makes you laugh aloud so vehemently that it causes tears to fall from your eyes. There are genres and sub-genres and tropes galore. And then, there are romances that whisper its truths quietly over the pages. You wait for the big moments that you might have felt in other stories, but that whispering acts as a balm against the romances that scream their emotions at you. M.E. Carter’s newest book in the SmartyPants Romance world, Cutie and the Beast, speaks softly yet profoundly in its truth. This story isn’t a heavily overt romance. Instead, if I take liberties here, the true romance lies in the relationship between parent and child. It isn’t a new perspective, but I think its story has a slant to it that sets it apart from your usual single parents’ romance.
The story follows our favorite trainer from Carter’s Weight Expectations, Abel. Abel’s wife has divorced him, and he’s left to raise their precocious daughter, Mabel. His schedule is difficult, his job can be precarious at times, and he worries. I mean, what parent doesn’t worry? Abel is surviving, but it feels as though any change could unravel his control. Enter Elliott, a single mother. Elliott currently lives with her mother, but their relationship is fraught with tension. Elliott’s mother is well-meaning, but she has always been critical of Elliott. This has created a sometimes tenuous connection between the two of them. Elliott has determined that she will raise her daughter without that stricture, but she recognizes the importance of healthy boundaries. Looking for independence, she finds a job at the gym where Abel trains as the manager of the child care center. Wanting to find a place to live to create some distance from her mother, a co-worker makes the suggestion that Abel and Elliott become roommates since Abel needs some help with his mortgage. As Elliott accepts Abel’s invitation to move in, they must negotiate different parenting styles and a sometimes complicated situation. Intertwined with these situations is their burgeoning interest in each other. Their romance finds its grounding in friendship first. With their attraction growing, Abel and Elliott must contend with the worry over their daughters, different parenting styles, and a potentially messy future.
Cutie and the Beast’s romance washes over its readers quietly. There is a sweetness to it that dirties itself at points. However, as I noted at the beginning of this review, the true romance lies in the love between the parents and their children. Abel adores his daughter, Mabel, and his parenting style is informed by his ex-wife’s response to (or lack thereof) their daughter. Similarly, Elliott’s relationship with her daughter is bounded by her experiences with her own mother. These parenting styles intersect and cause problems for Abel and Elliott’s relationship. The profundity of this intersection acts as an umbrella to their ability to find a future. Thankfully, Abel’s character is such that he patiently waits for Elliott to recognize the depth of their love for each other. In fact, beyond this book being a SmartyPants Romance book, I read this book for Abel. His wisdom in Weight Expectations was insightful, and I was enamored with him in that book. His characterization in this book is no different. While Elliott is oftentimes reticent and careful, Abel is the impetus for their eventual pairing. He’s once again insightful and caring and charming. Elliott has no chance against him once he determines his interest in her.
Even more, while Elliott is the more reserved of the two, she has an inner strength that you can’t help but admire. She is sensible, and she loves deeply. She’s just careful. She worries over the impact of actions on situations. She’s also the first to admit when she has made a mistake. Her ability to love and “see” Mabel through her difficulties make her characterization an important one. Carter uses her as a warning against prejudgments.
Not every romance needs to dig to the deepest depths of your soul or tickle your funny bone or make you hot. Sometimes, we need a story such as Cutie and the Beast to sit softly over us, acting as a salve against the depths of other heavier romance stories. M.E. Carter’s book reminds us that love is for everyone. That characters who seem like “real” people living with “real” situations are important as they act as a mirror to our own problems so that we can find our way to love. Abel and Elliott’s relationship has some fire, but its true strength lies in its normalcy. And romancelandia needs that too.
Welcome back to Weight Expectations, where the unexpected is likely to happen.
Cutie and the Beast, an all-new hilarious romantic standalone from M.E. Carter, is LIVE!
Living with her mother seemed like a good idea at the time. But Elliott Donovan’s living arrangements are not working for her anymore. Desperate to get back on her financial feet after a divorce and out from under her mother’s thumb, Elliott takes a job in the child care center at Weight Expectations, a local gym.
It has everything she needs – family friendly hours, more pay than she expected, and a super cute trainer who just happens to have part of his house for rent.
Abel DiSoto was living the good life until his wife walked out taking half of the family income with her. The blow to his ego was bad enough, but after a fire at the gym scattered Abel’s clients, and consequently his commissions, he’s stuck figuring out how to make ends meet, too. Renting out the master suite of his house to his new co-worker seems like an easy solution. They’re both mature adults, they both have eight-year-old daughters, and their work schedules coordinate so they can lend each other a helping hand to ease the burden of single parenthood.
The only downside? Living like a blended family when you’re not actually a family can present some challenges.
Welcome back to Weight Expectations, where the unexpected is likely to happen.
‘Cutie and the Beast’ is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the Cipher Office series, Knitting in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.
My name is M.E. Carter and I have no idea how I ended up writing books. I’m more of a story teller (the more exaggerated the better) and I happen to know people who helped me get those stories on paper. I love reading (read almost 200 books last year), hate working out (but I do it anyway because my trainer makes me), love food (but hate what it does to my butt) and love traveling to non-touristy places most people never see. I live in Houston with my four kids, Mary, Elizabeth, Carter and Bug, who was just a twinkle in my eye when I came up with my pen name. Yeah, I’ll probably have to pay for his therapy someday for being left out.
Disclaimer: Prior to reading The Ninth Inning, I had not read J. Sterling’s The Perfect Game series. I wasn’t familiar with Jack’s story, but I knew there had to be some backstory to the characters of J. Sterling’s newest series, The Boys of Baseball. And I was right. However, with that being said, you do NOT need to read that series to invest yourself in Sterling’s newest series.
You have to know before we start that I LOVE a good sports romance. Growing up in a sports home (my brother played baseball) and marrying a sports nut has ingratiated me into this world. I grew up in the baseball world, so sports romance set in the world of baseball generally piques my interest immediately. Add to that my love for college baseball. I’m a college professor, and college baseball is THE sport on my campus. I’ve taught several of its athletes in my classes, and they are oftentimes some of my favorite students, partly for their personalities and partly for their sport.
What J. Sterling’s The Ninth Inning does well is capture this world beautifully. If you attend a school without football, and your baseball team is one of the best in the nation, your baseball players become celebrities. Add to that the dream of most college baseball players at a Division 1 school: to make it to the “big leagues.” Believe it or not, only a small percentage of these players actually make it. Even then, the chances of making it to the top are even more difficult. Therefore, college baseball players walk this fine line of instant celebrity for the school’s marquee sport balanced with the academic rigor of college against the want to play well enough to make your dreams come true. Sterling shows us the gravity of this celebrity in her hero, Cole Anders. Sterling’s ability to create a character as complete as Cole to illustrate the complexity of the college baseball world is the gift of her book. To be honest, for the first third or so of the story, you won’t really like Cole. He’s indecisive and almost cruel in his treatment of the heroine, Christina. He believes he cannot commit to her due to this sports dream, but he also doesn’t want Christina with anyone else. This causes him to be equal parts possessive and aloof. In moving between these two responses to her, he creates confusion for Christina that borders on cruelty. As such, I struggled with him initially. Thankfully, Sterling develops Cole’s psychology for her readers, so, at some point, you feel empathic for him. Yet, it takes some time to accept him as heroic.
To balance a disdain for the hero, Sterling crafts a heroine who you commiserate with. Honestly, Christina has impressive emotional maturity when it comes to Cole. There were several times when she vacillates over her boundary-setting, and I found myself yelling at her to hold firm. I am not a game player, and I don’t advocate for it in romances. It reads as beneath the author to do so. However, Christina shows her inner strength in her willingness to protect herself and set firm boundaries around her relationship with Cole. Even though he continually breaks her heart, she determines that she is more important than anything with him. Sterling illustrates emotional health through the construction of her heroine, Christina. There is only one area where we see Christina’s judgment falter, and that occurs with her perception of Logan, the villain of The Ninth Inning. Thankfully, Sterling doesn’t draw out Christina’s misjudgment of Logan’s character, but it’s enough that it creates plenty of tension for her story, something necessary for all romances. Since Cole makes it difficult for the readers to like him at first, Sterling gifts us a heroine who stands in her strength and embraces the challenge of protecting her heart.
J. Sterling’s The Ninth Inning is a sports romance that reminds us of the challenges of college baseball. It’s an admonishment to follow our hearts. Cole believes that Christina will endanger his goal of making it to the big leagues. Therefore, he only follows his dream, casting aside his love. In doing so, he potentially misses living an abundant life. This is J. Sterling suggesting that life involves gradations of purpose: the purpose to grow, the purpose to love, and the purpose to live your dreams. They don’t have to be mutually-exclusive because The Ninth Inning illustrates that we can have it all if we simply believe in it. If you are a fan of sports romances like me, then you should DEFINITELY read J. Sterling’s brand of sports romance.
Siobhan Davis has this way about her romances. Her voice is indelible. When you pick up one of her trilogies (this seems part and parcel for her), these are the attributes guaranteed:
Bullyish romance
Moment after moment of action-packed romantic suspense that leads you from page to page
A heroine that can fall, somehow, for the hero who does everything short of physically abusing her, and she’s stalwart and insightful to overcome the challenge of the story.
A hero who is brought to his knees upending the horrible way he treats the heroine.
A psychology behind her storytelling that speaks to the most guttural parts of humankind and inverts the trajectory of her story, finding that happy ending and psychological completion in each of her characters.
Davis’s newest book, Rebellion, the second book of The Sainthood – Boys of Lowell High series, is no different. From its first page to its last, the action does not stop. Add to that a healthy dose of “down and dirty” $ex, and you find yourself engaged in the book. Since this is a reverse harem book, someone is always “hooking up” with someone, but this book delves deeper into the emotional hurts and health of its characters. As the story progresses, Harlow must deal with her feelings for the guys who she believes betrayed her, while fighting her insatiable lust for them.
In this book, we earn more of her story with Theo, and there is a reckoning with Galen. As all of this emotional upheaval occurs, the underlying story of taking down Sinner continues. At the end of Rebellion, we are, once again, left with a BIG cliffhanger that places several lives in the balance.
As you turn each page of this book, Siobhan Davis shows why her readers love her: she keeps you guessing until the end. There are times in her books when I wish I didn’t have to suspend my disbelief so much. There are instances that happen that require a healthy dose of denial. However, her books read like your favorite Netflix drama. Right now, I have no idea how she will bring down Sinner, a most heinous villain, how Harlow and the guys will see their future, and how there can be a happily-ever-after. I do know that I will be reading the final book in this trilogy, Reign. Once she grabs you with her edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense and her heady bedroom scenes, Davis catches you with your hook and won’t cast you out until the very end.
Professor Romance 