Monday, February 18, 2019

Review: Moonlight & Whiskey by Tricia Lynne

Moonlight & Whiskey by Tricia Lynne
Publisher: Loveswept
Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9781984800169
Release Date: March 12, 2019
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

When life gives you curves, you gotta learn how to rock them.

Successful businesswoman Avery Barrows likes her dips and curves, but she’s sick of the haters telling her that she should be ashamed of her body instead of embracing it. Determined to send them a big f*** you, Avery resolves to cut loose during a girls’ trip, hightailing her quick-mouthed, plus-sized self to New Orleans. So, what’s a smart woman with a little extra gotta do to get laid in this town?

Not much if you ask Declan McGinn, the lead singer of BlackSmith. Tall, dark, and tattooed, with a body made for sin, Declan prefers his women as curvy as his guitars. Avery’s sharp tongue and keen mind makes him want her even more.

As they burn up the sheets, Avery and Declan realize this is no one-night (or even one-week) stand. But for all of her bluster, Avery isn’t sure she can handle any more rejection. Besides, Declan has demons of his own. Now Avery has a choice to make: play it safe, or place her trust in the hands of a man who’s as tempting as the devil himself.

A take-no-s*** heroine, a rockin’ hero, and the city of New Orleans are the stars of the show in Moonlight & Whiskey. Tricia Lynne’s debut shows she has a lot of promise as an author – the way she writes about NOLA makes you feel like you’re really there. The city is a vivid, luscious character in and of itself and was unquestionably my favorite part of the book.

I really wanted to like Avery and there are some things I really did enjoy about her. Watching her come into her own in her professional life was fantastic and she has some body image issues that make her relatable. But aside from that, Avery is a bit much for me. She tends to go from zero to one hundred in no time flat, she and her best friend can be crass (and it takes a lot to put me off in that area), and she just felt too over-the-top all the time with very few breathers. Declan starts out the book a pretty hot hero (who doesn’t love a hero who’s a bad boy/skilled lover/kind soul?), but the deeper he and Avery fall in love, the more his demons are brought out. There’s a lot of talk of the light and the dark in Moonlight & Whiskey, especially as it relates to Declan, and sometimes I felt like I was getting repeatedly hit over the head with this particular theme.

The romance is filled with erotic moments, but once the book starts travelling down the light/dark path the passion turns into flat-out drama. There are times Avery and Declan work really well together, but I wanted something more substantial than what was given to make me believe in them as a couple given how quickly they fall in love. A lot of overused tropes start appearing as well in the latter half of the book (the big misunderstanding, pushing someone away for their own good, the heroine who is always overlooked yet two very different kinds of guys fall all over themselves for her, etc.). I don’t want to spoil the story, but many of the obstacles in the way of Avery and Declan’s happily ever after don’t feel organic. There’s a certain character’s interference in particular that just felt shoehorned in for added drama and honestly I just wanted to shake all the characters and tell them to calm the f*** down for five minutes. Call it reader preference, but for me if there’s high drama there also needs to be some balance or the characters start to seem immature and the entire reading experience is like being hit by a two-by-four.

As I mentioned before, Moonlight & Whiskey is Ms. Lynne’s debut and while I had issues with the characters and romance, there really are times in the story her writing was captivating. The way she brought NOLA to life ensures that I’ll definitely want to read another one of her books because I’m interested to see how she grows as an author.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Review: The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton by Stacy Reid

The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton by Stacy Reid
Publisher: Entangled: Scorched
Genre: Erotic Historical Romance
ISBN: 9781640636101
Release Date: February 18, 2019
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Entangled
Stacy Reid Reading Order

Beneath Lily Layton’s sweet and charming exterior beats the heart of a vixen—one with shocking and scandalous secrets and desires. But as a genteel lady, she confines her forbidden fantasies, like those about her employer’s devastatingly handsome son, to her diary…until she loses it.

Oliver Carlyle, Marquess of Ambrose, has finally found the perfect wife, a woman who will not hide from his dark, carnal cravings. He just needs to figure out who she is. When he has a secret rendezvous with a mysterious stranger, suddenly he starts to believe she might be the author of the diary.

He’s determined to find out who his mystery woman is…

His biggest fear—and deepest fantasy—is she may be the one woman he cannot have.

Lily Layton is a widow twice over who has never known true passion. She’s been taught that what she yearns for is wrong, but that doesn’t keep her from writing down her deepest desires in her diary. It’s a perfectly safe escape…until she loses it.

Oliver Carlyle, Marquess of Ambrose, has decided it’s time to choose a wife. But when he finds a scandalous diary, he can’t get his mind off the mysterious author. How can he pick from the debutantes and titled ladies his mother has picked out for him when there’s a woman in his home who is his perfect carnal match? And why can he not keep his gaze from Lily Layton, his mother’s companion and the one woman at the party he cannot have?

The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton is a scorching hot read. Stacy Reid always delivers engaging stories and Lily and Oliver’s romance is no exception.

As individuals, Lily and Oliver are great characters. Together? They’re dynamite. Lily grabbed my heart from the first. She’s kind, generous, and an incredibly talented designer. She’s also the survivor of an abusive marriage. But no matter how her last husband tried to shame her and tear her down, Lily has an unbreakable core of strength. That doesn’t mean she’s invulnerable – far from it. I loved watching Lily grow over the course of the story and I was cheering for her as she fearlessly risked everything for what she wants most. And Oliver is just about the sexiest gentleman you could hope to read about. He’s incredibly sensual and has a code of honor Lily tempts him to break. They fit one another perfectly outside the bedroom as well. But it’d be remiss of me not to talk about how erotic a pairing they are. In their initial rendezvous, neither knows the other’s identity, but that doesn’t tamp down on the heat they generate. Their story is ferociously sexy and only gets hotter as the book goes on and Lily and Olvier become more adventurous.

Class differences aren’t the only thing standing in the way of Oliver and Lily’s perfect happily ever after. There’s a heavy emotional turn Ms. Reid doesn’t shy away from. And here I’ll include a SPOILER ALERT, so please skip the rest of this paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers. There is an incredibly emotional plotline through the course of this story involving possible infertility that anyone struggling with pregnancy or coping with infertility may find triggering. It’s an element of realism woven into the fantasy and my heart broke for Lily more than once. Ms. Reid handles this sensitive topic honestly and I appreciated that, though whether or not the resolution of this plotline satisfies is going to be a matter of reader preference.

The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton is sexy as can be, emotionally engaging, and just plain fun to read. I devoured the book in one sitting because I adored Lily and Oliver and their chemistry is phenomenal. I highly recommend The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton to anyone looking for a fast-paced historical romance with well-drawn characters, an entertaining plot, and an abundance of steam.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.