Most of All You by Mia Sheridan - Review

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Author: Mia Sheridan

Publication Date:  17 October 2017

Publisher: Forever Romance

Series:  StandAlone

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Age Recommendation: 17 and Up

Rating: 5 Stars

~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~ 

Book Description:

A broken woman . . .

Crystal learned long ago that love brings only pain. Feeling nothing at all is far better than being hurt again. She guards her wounded heart behind a hard exterior, and carries within her a deep mistrust of men who, in her experience, have only ever used and taken.

A man in need of help . . .

Then Gabriel Dalton walks into her life. Despite the terrible darkness of his past, there’s an undeniable goodness about him. And even though she knows the cost, Crystal finds herself drawn to Gabriel. His quiet strength is wearing down her defenses and his gentle patience is causing her to question everything she thought she knew.

Only love can mend a shattered heart . . .

Crystal and Gabriel never imagined that the world that had stolen everything from them would bring them a deep love like this. Except fate will only take them so far and now the choice is theirs: Harden their hearts once again or find the courage to shed their painful pasts.


My Review:

Once again I have been blown away by Mia Sheridan.  There is just something about her work that gets under your skin and changes you on a fundamental level a little at a time.  Mia's stories are rooted deep in the human psyche, in the saddest edges of our heart.  Her books are heavy and heart breaking but always with an underlying sense of hope and the truth that even out of the deepest pain and despair joy and happiness can be found.

Most of All You is right up there with Archer's Voice for me and any fan of Mia Sheridan knows that  statement says more than stars or words of praise I could truly give.  Archer's Voice is my go to in every recommendation I give for a Contemporary Romance, it is the standard by which I hold everyone else and I am thrilled that Mia was able to create another book that brought me so many feelings, a mother book that I can now say with out a doubt is a true work of art and should be read by every romance reader out there.

 I adore Mia Archer's work for how she takes these utterly broken characters and gives them back their lives.  I love how she never writes characters that are completely defeated, there is always that desire to be better, to be stronger, to live.  Gabriel is just amazing.  He is the embodiment of a hero.  Bravery and honor are the foundation of who he is, his heartbreaking past the blocks of who he has become that sit on top of that original foundation, and his hope and love (oh man does this guy have hope and love) the windows that will let all the light, his past has dimmed, into his soul.  Just to take that corny comparison of mine even farther, Crystal is, well she is the crystal hanging in his windows that let the rainbows shine.  She brings color back into his world, opening him up to all the things he thought gone but still yearned for.  That ability to love and be loved, truly loved and desired by another person.

The character development of both Gabriel and Crystal is simply beautiful, watching them both grow and change, particularly Crystal is truly like watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly.  They have both buried the beauty so deep that it was hard for even them to see it in themselves, but the way they saw that beauty and pulled it out of each other is magical.  All of Mia's books leave a mark on your soul in some way but Most of All You will truly change the way that you look at yourself and others. It is a gift to have had the opportunity to read this book, one that I will cherish.  It is a book that will remind you that we all have choices and the ones we make affect more than ourselves, but it will also remind you that though you may make a choice, out of desperation or despair, that you may have not made otherwise there is always the opportunity to come back from that.  There is always the opportunity to be the person you know yourself to be and there is always a person out there who will stand beside you no matter the choice.

In the end all Mia's book are about hope and love and though they may tear us apart while reading them you know when you finish you will have been on a truly beautiful journey through the heart. If you haven't read a Mia Sheridan book before I can not recommend them enough to you and Most of All You is a perfect place to begin.  If you have read her books in the past and you hesitate since this isn't one of her Signs of Love series books, (which for those unfamiliar are almost all standalone so go forth and read with out worry) that this is a traditionally published book, do not worry, this is classic beautiful Mia Sheridan work and you want this book on your bookshelf and in your hands!

~ HAPPY READING ~ 

Mia Sheridan is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. Her passion is weaving true love stories about people destined to be together. Mia lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband. They have four children here on earth and one in heaven.

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Too Beautiful to Break by Tessa Bailey - Review

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Author: Tessa Bailey

Publication Date:  26 September 2017

Publisher: Forever Romance

Series:  Romancing the Clarkson's, book 4

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Age Recommendation: 18 and Up

Rating: 4 Stars

~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~ 

Book Description:

A love of a lifetime . . .

Leaving Belmont Clarkson is the hardest thing Sage Alexander has ever done. From the moment they met, she knew Belmont was the one, and getting up close and personal with him on his family's epic road trip has taken her desire to a new, even hotter level. But there's no way she can go there---not without revealing secrets that could devastate them both.

Losing Sage is not an option. Belmont's heart is hers, has alwaysbeen hers. He knows she's hiding something from him, but nothing will stand in his way of telling her just how much she means to him. Finding her is easy---saving her from her past could cost him everything.

My Review:

If you are a Tessa Bailey fan this is the book you have been waiting for.  This is the book that is the soul of the entire Romancing the Clarkson's series and for a fan of this series the makes this book their soul so you can imagine how exciting this day is for all the Bailey's Babes, the readers that have been swooning, fawning, and biting their nails over our beloved Belmont and Sage.  I can almost guarantee that by the end of the day today there will be a collective sigh heard round the world as readers close the back cover and clutch this book to their chest both pleased at the end to the series and sad that it has all come to an end.  

The one thing you need to know about this book is it is utterly sigh worthy.  As always with a Tessa Bailey book all the swoon and romance is there, but there is also a softness to this story, a deep sadness that is both heart breaking and beautiful.  Too Beautiful to Break is a book about fears, about discovering them, concurring them, accepting them, and letting them go.  

If you have read the previous books in this series you know how difficult Belmont's back story was going to be.  He's a broken man, broken in such a way that the only ease he finds from his hurt and fears is either on the water or in the presence of Sage Alexander.  There is a peace that he brings to her that he can't find anywhere else and he has needed her badly during his and his siblings cross country adventure, a trip that has taken him away from the contentment his work and the water give him and put him through an emotional hurricane.  Once Sage arrives he can finally breathe but then everything changes when she leaves him standing at train station lost and confused.  That moment with Belmont, it broke my heart as much as it broke his.  Imagining him completely lost with out his anchor pulled me right into his hurricane of emotions and had me clutching my heart over his pain.  

Sage has to leave Belmont behind, she has to get home, home to a life she tried to run from but was always tethered to, one she knew she would always have to return to.  She has to run from Belmont because he offers her too much safety.  He offers her a way to lose herself in his arms and in his love, but it's an unhealthy dependency that she fears finding herself in with him, the same type of dependency she lived through with her parents, parents she loves but can not let herself become like.  

I love this story, I loved the heartache, I loved the back story, I loved the romance, I LOVED Belmont, I loved almost everything...the one thing that keeps me from giving Too Beautiful to Break a 5 star rating is that I didn't love Sage as much as I wanted to.  You know how sometimes you wait so long for a book, there is so much build up, that the book can ultimately disappoint you because it just isn't everything you craved and hoped for, a little of this happened here but it was only with one character, everything else hit the mark.  For me Sage was just a little too wishy-washy.  Of all the characters to give everything to and then rip it all away Belmont is the last one it should ever be done to.  I struggled a little to see her side of things for some reason this idea that she could allow herself to be so totally immersed in another person, that she's strong enough to walk away from him, that she is strong enough to fight a battle for her family, but she isn't strong enough to set up a life with Belmont that supports them both with out losing one another seemed strange to me.  It may just be that due to my own independence I can't understand where she is coming from but it hurt to see the way she pulls and pushes Belmont through life.  But honestly this challenge for me is just a drop in the bucket of a beautiful story, one that deserves to be read and loved.  

I highly suggest reading this series from start to finish particularly when it comes to reading Too Beautiful to Break, you need to know Belmont before going into this story, you need to see how he loves his family, how he depends on them, but how he fights for them and fights to give them their happiness.  You need to see his quiet and heart breaking interactions with Sage so you can feel the true force of his book.  You need to see that he is the soul, the pillar of this family and that of everyone his happiness is what this whole series has ultimately been leading up to.  That this sad little boy, this broken man gets the chance to find happiness, safety, and love. 

~ HAPPY READING ~ 

Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days. 

Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention. 

She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband of ten years and six-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

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Too Hard To Forget by Tessa Bailey - Release Day Launch, Review, Excerpt and Giveaway

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Author: Tessa Bailey

Publication Date:  25 April, 2017

Publisher: Forever Books

Series:  Romancing the Clarkson's, book 3

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Age Recommendation: 18 and Up

Rating: 5 Stars

~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~ 

Book Description:

The third book in New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey's Romancing the Clarksons series about four siblings on a cross-country road trip, perfect for fans of Gena Showalter and Julie James!

This time, she's calling the shots.

Peggy Clarkson is returning to her alma mater with one goal in mind: confront Elliott Brooks, the man who ruined her for all others, and remind him of what he's been missing. Even after three years, seeing him again is like a punch in the gut, but Peggy's determined to stick to her plan. Maybe then, once she has the upper hand, she'll finally be able to move on.

In the years since Peggy left Cincinnati, Elliott has kept his focus on football. No distractions and no complications. But when Peggy walks back onto his practice field and into his life, he knows she could unravel everything in his carefully controlled world. Because the girl who was hard to forget is now a woman impossible to resist.

My Review:

What you have to know to begin with is that Tessa Bailey always hits it out of the park for me.  She is a go to author, a one click, an OMG a new book is coming how am I going to wait patiently, I'll just 'stalk' her everyday waiting for any little piece she might drop type of author. I know that when I pick up a book of hers I will walk away totally satisfied but sometimes, sometimes she leaves me completely wordless because the book was pure perfection and that was Too Hard to Forget for me.

The minute I finished this book I hit Twitter to announce that this book holds it's own against the one Tessa Bailey book I hold all the others up against, Duke's book from Made in Jersey, Worked Up (click to read my review).  Duke is the standard for me now, he's practically a Goliath so facing him is a daunting task but one that Elliot goes toe to toe with.  While Duke is a big teddy bear of a man who holds his emotions close to his great big barrel chest and is afraid to let love in, Coach Elliot Brooks is truly flawed.  He's not a hero who just doesn't know how to let himself be loved, he's a hero who has created an entire world around his belief that he is undesirable unless he's on a football field. He takes Catholic guilt to a whole new level and honestly I am never going to look at my rosary the same way again.

Sidetone: Good Night Tessa, I am going to have to go to confession just for using my rosary from now on and 10 Our Father's and 7 Hail Mary's is not going to be enough, haha!

You almost don't want to like Coach Brooks but true to a Tessa Bailey book you will end up falling in love with him, his flaws only make him more relatable in the end, more deserving of the love he finds, and more devoted when he gives it in return. 

Peggy, this lady.  I am going to be straight up honest, (as one should do) I did not think I was going to like this book because I did not think I was going to like Peggy.  Tessa's build up to Peggy's story gives us a glimpse of a spoiled girl with commitment issues and a whole lot of audaciousness and, dare I use the term, cockiness.  All the siblings on this road trip have their issues, but hers always rubbed me a bit of the wrong way and I am going to be even more honest when I say at the start of this book I still didn't think I was going to like it or her.  She does to portray I suppose what we have come to see as a typical heroine.  She comes across as brash, seemingly self absorbed, risky and risqué, and flippant.  The thing is she is so much more that then woman we think we know.  Her story is deeper and more emotional than any one realizes.  Her secrets will bring you to tears and her fight for her heart and the heart she knows is hers to care for will have you falling just as in love with her as you will with Coach.  Both of these characters are so deeply flawed that you want to jump in the book and try to fix them yourself.  

This story is as beautiful as it is devastating at times.  It is full of broken pieces being glued back together with love and hope.  It's a book about commitment on so many levels, commitment to faith, ethics, values, love, hope, trust, family, friends, self.  This is a book that will have you rooting for the couple from, eh, maybe to exactly at the beginning but not much later, to the end.  All the couples in Tessa's books deserve happiness and I am so glad that she gives it to them, but this couple have earned that happiness and they earned it through pain and tears.  They earned it by completely laying themselves open to each other and finding that having just a little faith that you deserve something beautiful opens a whole new world.  I could go on and on about this book and this couple, but I will leave it with this: You know when you go into a Tessa Bailey book you are going to get ALL the steamy moments.  She's going to give you a romance that is going to knock you off your feet but she gives us so much more.  Every book she surprises me because every book has a story with in a story to tell.  Her characters face emotional obstacles that tear at your heart.  I think I say this in every review of one of her books; go for the romance but stay for the heart and soul.  These books are deeper than you would expect and that just makes them all the more satisfying.  

Final note, Belmont.  Crap, Belmont and Sage.  I do not know how I am going to make it through their story in one piece.  Belmont is going to tear you up in this book so I can only imagine what he is going to do to us when he finally gets his own.  I am already so in love with him and Sage and I know they are going to break me before making me smile.  I feel a little twisted that I can't wait for it.  

~ HAPPY READING ~ 

Excerpt:

“I don’t know, Peggy.” He whirled on her, closing in until she was forced back onto the desk. “I had an All-American on my squad this morning and now I don’t. That’s all I know.” He pointed a finger toward the window. “I solve problems down on the field. Saving people isn’t my job.”

Saving people. God, there was such a wealth of regret and pain in those two words. But he couldn’t hear it and she couldn’t address it. Letting him know she saw right through his façade to the hurt beneath might force Elliott to close himself off. “You didn’t always limit yourself. Why are you doing it now?”

“Accepting things that can’t be changed isn’t a limitation. It’s realistic.”

“But how will you know if something can’t be changed unless you try?”

“When it comes to certain things, Peggy, trying leads to losing.” He was in her face now, the mint from his toothpaste familiar and inviting where it slid over her lips. “And I don’t lose.”

No one ever stood up this man but her, and she wouldn’t be cowed now. “No? You’re out a receiver.” She hitched herself up on his desk. “I’d call that a loss.”

The tips of his shoes met Peggy’s, his hands gripping the furniture on either side of her hips. “Who do you think you are, little girl? Coming into my office and telling me what I’ve done wrong?” His eyes were brilliant in their vexation, the attraction he was trying so hard to fight. “Where do you get the goddamn bravery?”

“The bravery is what you liked best about me,” she breathed, heat sizzling in a downward V toward her thighs. “Isn’t it?”

“No. That bravery is what almost led to my downfall.” His hands found her bottom, jerking her to the edge of the desk. “I resented it. Still do.”

“Liar,” Peggy whispered, easing her thighs wider. “You’re dying for an excuse to head for another downfall.” When her legs were as open as she could spread them, she leaned up to Elliott’s ear and let her breath shake loose. “One thrust.”

Elliott’s right hand came up out of nowhere, molding over Peggy’s mouth as his hips crowded into the notch of her legs. With a quick maneuver to recline her halfway back, Elliott’s erection found the apex of her thighs, delivering an aggressive pump against her underwear that sent a scream climbing up Peggy’s throat, only to be trapped by his hand. Knees jerking up out of reflex over the rush of sensation, an orgasm almost—almost— broke past the surface, sending her waters rippling out on all sides. Her legs wanted to hug Elliott’s waist, her voice wanted to beg for one more, one more, one more, but he shook his head, denying her, even though his gaze was hot, a low groan issuing from his harshly masculine mouth.

He leaned in and nipped the lobe of her ear. “Next time, ask for two.”

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THE ROMANCING THE CLARKSONS SERIES

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

TOO WILD TO TAME

TOO HARD TO FORGET

TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK

Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans, and laptop, and drove cross-country to New York City in under four days. Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend, and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.

She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband and daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

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Four Letter Word by J. Daniels - Cover Reveal and Giveaway

Title: Four Letter Word

Series: Dirty Deeds #1

Author: J. Daniels

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance

Genre: Romantic Comedy 

 Release Date: October 4, 2016

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Book Description:

Fate. Hate. Love. Lies.
Which four letter word will change their lives forever?

In an effort to avoid dealing with the shocking end of her marriage, Sydney Paige high-tails it to Dogwood Beach, North Carolina to vent her anger onto the man who broke her best friend's heart. But when she unknowingly dials the wrong number, Syd's newly single world is turned upside down by a stranger who wants to keep her on the line.

Brian Savage is living a life he's quickly come to hate- until Sydney and her innocently wild voice. But Brian has secrets, ones that could destroy everything between them. And when the woman on the phone becomes the lover in his bed, shielding her from the mistakes of his past becomes harder and harder...

Praise for Four Letter Word

“A delicious slow burn with explosive chemistry—FOUR LETTER WORD is everything you want and more. Twists and turns. A to die for hero. J. Daniels’s writing is unique, emotional, and addictive. My four letter word is LOVE. Multiplied by four!” - Katy Evans, New York Times bestselling author of Manwhore

Available for Pre-order

#2 Hit the Spot

Releasing December 6, 2016

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Author Bio

J. Daniels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Sweet Addiction series, the Alabama Summer series, and the upcoming Dirty Deeds series.

She would rather bake than cook, she listens to music entirely too loud, and loves writing stories her children will never read. Her husband and children are her greatest loves, with cupcakes coming in at a close second.

J grew up in Baltimore and resides in Maryland with her family.

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