4 stars for “Cartel – 03 – Empire” by Lili St Germain

*** ARC kindly provided by the publisher HarperCollins Publishers Australia, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ***

In the first 2 books I didn’t really knew if I should hate or love Dornan but now … I really hate him and it hurts because more than once he showed that he can be good, he has a conscience, …

Love and hate … there is such a thin line between them!  Poor Marianna!  How much can a woman suffer…  She is such a strong woman and deserved happiness

What I did like about this book but what is often too much in other books is the multiple POV … For this book it worked because it really helped to find out what all main characters were thinking.

I loved this dark conclusion of the Cartel series and would love to read more from this author.  I loved her Gypsy Brothers series.  I still have to read the last book in that series and am really looking forward to it.  This author knows how to write dark, captivating books!

Be warned this book doesn’t have a real HEA and even though I knew what was going to happen I was crying so much…  Heartbreaking!!

 

3 stars for “Madame X – 01 – Madame X” by Jasinda Wilder

*** ARC kindly provided by the publisher PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. ***

I really don’t know what to do!!! I had a hard time finishing this book since I don’t like the main male character at all… I really dislike him! But for some reason I couldn’t not finish the book. I was intrigued by the story and I really wanted to know more about X. Who is she? Where did she come from? What happened? Unfortunately the answers to those questions aren’t revealed yet in the first book of this “Madame X” series.

At moments I had an issue with the POV of this book but I do like the writing style of Jasinda Wilder.

So why do I dislike Caleb so much? He claims that X belongs to him and he doesn’t share but he isn’t faithful himself. That’s a big NO for me… I guess we’ll learn why in the next book but I’m not sure yet if I’ll read the next one. I guess it just isn’t for me 😦

3+ stars for “Dive Bar – 01 – Dirty by Kylie Scott”

*** ARC kindly provided by the publisher St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. ***

I recently read Deep by this author and really loved it. After reading Deep I was really looking forward to reading Vaughan’s book and all other books in the Stage Dive series (especially Mal who makes a small appearance in Dirty).

I loved both main characters and the side characters. I did like it but it feels like something is missing… It’s a great romance but that’s all. I’m also not a big fan of insta-love. Maybe my expectations were wrong with the title ‘Dirty’ 😉

This book gets 3.5 stars and I do recommend it if you need a light, easy read! I’ll defenitely read more from this author!

3 stars for “Quick and Dirty – 01 – Dirty Little Lies by Clare James”

*** Copy kindly provided by the publisher Barclay Publicity, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. ***

This is the story of Stevie. She loves her boyfriend Max and everything, except their libidos, seems great. After she finds a pack of condoms in his bag she moves out. She wants to Get Her Sexy Back and gets the help from sexy Gabe.

This is as far as I’ll go telling the story since I don’t want to spoil too much. This story has been written numerous times : Problems relationship or wanting to be able to seduce an unreachable hot guy. Getting lessons or help from another hot guy and falling for that hot guy in the end. I don’t mind reading this storyline again but this version wasn’t anything special.

There were also some small things that I didn’t really like

1. She thinks Max has cheated on her and still entertains the idea to win him back. If he wants her back he should grovel and prove himself!!
2. With Gabe there was NO talk about birth control or STD’s and they don’t use a condom
3. At the kinky club they don’t talk about a safe word. Gabe is the owner so it’s not like he is new to it.
4. I’m not a big fan of insta-love. 2 weeks is too soon for me

Overall this was a nice, fast read and I give it 3 stars. The book ends in a HFN. The conclusion of this book is “Dirty Little Tricks”

3 stars for #Jerk by Kat T. Masen

I love books about Jerks because in fiction they usually end up being the best … not the same as in real life 😦

This is the story of Presley. She finds her fiancé cheating on her. The men at work have been waiting for the moment Presley would be single again. Haden tries to catch her attention being a Jerk. And damn he is one…

Presley is okay but I didn’t really like Haden. The main reason for this is spoiler :that he has feelings for Presley but gets engaged to another woman while he is gone for some months. Then later he cheats on his fiancée with Presley. And since Presley knows what it is to be cheated on I find that she doesn’t seem to have much problems with being the other woman

Something that annoyed me in this book is that Haden is almost constantly referred to as jerk or my jerk. But what annoyed me more was that Presley always talked or thought about her vagina as Kitty. For fun I did a search and found 50 matches on Kitty and 176 for Jerk.

Presley and Haden go from enemies to friends to nothing to … fast forward to 95% … a couple spoiler : after Haden was married for 3 hours with his fiancée!!

2 stars for “Frosted Cowboy by Charlene Ross”

*** ARC kindly provided by the publisher Velvet Morning Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. ***

This is the story of a woman trying dating again after her fiancé cheated on her and her boss fired her. She doesn’t make the best choices in men but does succeed in finding the right one at the end. Some of the candidates are dull, some are cheaters, others don’t want to commit …

I personally didn’t like Laney. She annoys me, she doesn’t trust easily and thinks to soon that someone has other motives. The story is also rather predictable and the ending to abrupt. The humor also didn’t work for me … BUT this is my personal opinion, don’t let this stop you from reading this book.

4.5 stars for “Cartel – 02 – Kingpin by Lili St. Germain”

*** ARC kindly provided by the publisher HarperCollins, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review. ***

Damn you Dornan! You made me like you a little bit after book 1. I know what happened in the ‘Gypsy Brothers’ series but putting that into the very back of my mind, I did see your better side but now I hate you again …

Poor Mariana, what more do you have to go through before you finally get ‘rest’! I admire her strength! This author really knows how to create strong female characters!!

In this second book ‘Kingpin’ we are 9 years ahead and Mariana is still is a privileged captive who still loves Dornan even though he’s still living with his wife. Some things happen which make her see/feel the evil man he is, more often. Her lover slowly turns into the monster hidden deep inside him. She feels more and more attracted to compassionate, kind, thoughtful John, prez of the Gypsy Brothers and Dornan’s friend. John is married and even though his wife isn’t worth the title wife and mother he remained loyal to her all those years. But now he’s having difficulties fighting his attraction towards Mariana. Can he keep fighting his attraction? Which man will she choose? Can they have a future?

Again a wonderful, well written, captivating, emotional, twisted story. Even though I’m dreading what is going to happen I’m really looking forward to the conclusion in this series … ‘EMPIRE’, the irresistible conclusion to the Cartel trilogy will be published on June 1, 2016 according to GoodReads… OMG I don’t know if I can wait that long!

Available for pre-order on Amazon US : http://amzn.com/B00KHHF02E

3+ stars for “A Hollywood Love Story – 02 – Unforgettable 2 by Nelle L’Amour”

*** Received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review ***

I liked book 1 and I liked this short, light book 2 even more… In the first book 1 I wasn’t sure how I felt about Brandon but yay in this book he shows such a good side of himself so I take back what I said after book 1. He’s no longer an conceited, egotistical, arrogant asshole ;D. Now he’s gentle, caring, romantic, makes her feel safe and protected, funny, … almost too good to be true.

Also this book gives us some more suspense and drama than the first. It’s also a little bit kinkier than the first. We also get to finally see the true Katrina and there is just 1 word I have for her … straitjacket!

And then the ending … Brandon has finally figured out he wants his soulmate and then WackoKat interferes … Looking forward to book 3.

A part I didn’t really like in this book… but it’s part of the story is that Brandon doesn’t dump Katrina sooner and therefor he cheats on his fiancée with Zoey! Also, the same issue, I didn’t like that Zoey slept with a married man! But as I said that’s part of the story…

1 star for “Where Do I Go from Here by KA Lightle”

*** I received this book for free from the author through The Fifty Shades Support group on Goodreads in exchange for a honest review ***

I finished this book last night and honestly I really didn’t like it and rated it 1 star and feel bad about it. But 1 stars equals “didn’t like it” on Goodreads so I’ll stick with it.

Why didn’t I like it? I didn’t like the story at all, I didn’t like the writing style, I didn’t like the characters and last but not least because this totally ruined it for me … there are so many spelling and grammar errors. English is not my mother tongue so maybe I’m wrong in some instances but there really are too many. If I’m right this is the author’s first book and she didn’t have an editor but please ask family or friends to read it and help you getting as much errors out as possible. I also saw a rather harsh rating on Amazon from a few months ago (the only rating at that moment) where it’s mentioned that there are too many errors. Use those comments to make improvements …

Here is the story in short but be aware there are spoilers Sarah returns early from a trip with her friends and finds her boyfriend James cheating on her with THREE women. After some hours she returns home, finds him in the house and instead of castrating him they have make up sex??? She still doesn’t throw him out but as a revenge she cheats on him with 2 men. He’s furious and when the cops get involved she gets taken to the station where her neighbour-in-shining-armor Jeff, who has been kind of a stalker without her knowing that, becomes her lawyer…

There were some moments I really wanted to stop but since I got the opportunity to read this one and it was a short one I felt obliged to finish and hoped it would get better…

I still hate doing this but 1 star is my honest rating 😦

4 stars for “Chicago Syndicate – 03 – For Adriano by Soraya Naomi “

*** I received a copy of this book for free from the author through I love Alpha Male books club on Goodreads in exchange for a honest review ***

I loved the first two books in this series. Book 1 and 2 bring us the heart-breaking story of Fallon and Luca. In those books we get introduced to Adriano and Camilla (Cam). After book 1 I wasn’t sure yet how I felt about Adriano but book 2 took those doubts away. Camilla was introduced too but there was still too much mystery around her to insight in her

Cam has been on her own since her mother died when Cam was 16. When she gets too curious at a bartending job for Fat Sal she witnesses something she shouldn’t and gets trapped. After suffering for 5 months she manages to escape Fat Sal and soon after she gets a job offer from James (Mafia boss but this is not known to her) as a bartender in the Strip club in the House. Adriano pursues her but she denies him for 3 months. They have a wonderful friendship before this which gets ruined by the sex. Eventually Cam falls in love with Adriano but Adriano denies their love because he doesn’t want to bring her into his world. After a failed attempt to help Fallon escape (book 1) she was fired and a few days later she disappears… She’s now trying to escape Fat Sal AND the Syndicate (Chicago Cosa Nostra Mafia). She’s missing for 9 months and Adriano’s next job is to find the woman who got under his skin but he can’t touch anymore since she is a Mafia Princess spoiler : (At the end of book 2 we learn that James, the Chicago Syndicates boss, is her father)  This is all I’m going to tell about the story…

Even though I read the first 2 books a lot was still unknown about Cam. We get lots of helpful flashbacks in the beginning of this book.

I loved this wonderful fairy tale of forbidden love between the Mafia Princess and the hot, alpha, Italian Mafia Capo. This was well written with lots of suspense, hot sex and some interesting twists.

Since there is another book coming I was afraid during the last 8% that something terrible was going to happen but luckily this was not the case. The book ends rather nice but I’m still looking forward to read more about their story now they can finally/hopefully really be together!