Book Blitz- Star of Bethlehem by Sarah Daltry

Hello, people! Today we have for you a Book Blitz post hosted by Asli @ Yah Gotta Read This for author Sarah Dlatry's book, Star of Bethlehem. Look below for all the book details, a short and sweet excerpt and the cute cover! 

BOOK INFO:

Title: Star of Bethlehem (Flowering holiday novella)

Author: Sarah Daltry

Release Date: 11/18/2013

Publisher: SDE Press

BOOK PLAYLIST / BOOK TRAILER

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 

Jack isn’t a rock star. He’s not the leader of a MC. He isn’t a billionaire. Lily’s not the daughter of a mob boss, or a stripper, or a virgin with a BDSM fascination. They’re just regular college kids, who somehow found each other in the middle of all the crap and chaos of growing up.

“With you, Jack, it was the first time I ever felt real. It was the first time anyone looked at me and saw substance. It was the first time I wanted to make someone see me.”

Jack and Lily have navigated his past, her desire to move on from her family’s demands of her, his depression, and her loneliness. Now, on New Year’s Eve, they have an entire year laid out ahead of them. First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s family, to be welcomed into her life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater that is way too hot and his grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s gleaming house on a hill, ready to open himself up completely to her.

Inside the perfect, sparkling house, Lily waits for the boy she has come to love. But Lily’s house and family are a lot like her – shiny and pretty on the outside, with a sad emptiness on the interior. Lily wants to give Jack the one thing he has always dreamed of – family and love – but can she keep him from seeing how hollow a lot of the picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?

This is a novella length work that follows Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley.

EXCERPT: 

I take his hand and pull him down beside me on my bed. I feel so complete in his arms, as if nothing can go wrong when he holds me. It’s all the other stuff. The world, people, pressure. Maybe it’s a little fear that things just ended with Derek. That one day, as quickly as I fell for Jack, I also fell out of love with Derek. I don’t have enough experience to know if that’s normal. What if it happens again?

“What? Tell me,” Jack whispers.

“Have you ever felt like your entire life is some surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in control of it, while really, you’re probably just…”

“A melting clock?” he finishes and laughs. I look at him, disappointed that I can’t explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t care.

“All the fucking time,” he says. “I know you’re scared. I know I’m scared. But I seem to remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made you a promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life intimidates me. Hell, loving you intimidates me. But I’m in this. I’m here. Present. Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is you.”

“Take the damn book,” I tell him. “I just wanted to show you that I have faith in us. It was a conscious decision to give you something that was a very special gift to me, to tell you that I trust you with it, because I trust you to be there. Long term.”

He takes me in his arms and kisses me. I decide I won’t stop him if he goes further, but he doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy between us, but as much as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my mind than his body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want him here in my life; I want him with me, because I love being this aware.

I speak against his cheek, while his hands slowly explore my body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s studying me like a work of art. “I don’t want to fall out of love with you. I thought Derek was all I ever wanted. I don’t want to be in the same place with you a year from now.”

“You won’t be,” he tells me.

“How do you know?”

He kisses along my face, brushing his lips against my cheek, my forehead, my nose, but never reaching my mouth. “I don’t know how. But I do.”

I love that he can put aside his doubts to ease my own. I know Jack’s had so much trouble in his life, and the fact that he can comfort me, when my problems are so petty and stupid in the scheme of things, is one more thing I love so much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be, Jack.”

“You’re not shallow. You’re not empty. Anything you think of yourself – it’s crazy. If you want to talk about surreal, it’s the fact that you think you’re less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on the same way I did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you. They missed out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No one will ever hurt you again.”

I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry I’m being so moody. It’s probably hormones or something. I think I’m just frustrated.”

“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well… I mean… I can help you relieve some of that.”

He’s on top of me and I don’t care that it wasn’t exactly what I meant. I don’t care that someone could walk in. Someone probably will walk in, since eventually they’ll come looking, but I don’t care at all. I want to belong to Jack, and I don’t know any other way to do so.

STAR OF BETHLEHEM PURCHASE LINKS: 

AMAZON / AMAZON UK / SMASHWORDS / APPLE / BARNES AND NOBLE / ALL ROMANCE

For more about Jack and Lily’s story check out Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley by Sarah Daltry- 

FORGET ME NOT PURCHASE LINKS: 

AMAZON / AMAZON UK / APPLE / SMASHWORDS / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO / SONY / ALL ROMANCE / PAPERBACK

LILY OF THE VALLEY PURCHASE LINKS:

AMAZON / AMAZON UK / APPLE  / SMASHWORDS / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO / ALL ROMANCE / PAPERBACK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Sarah Daltry writes erotica and romance that ranges from sweet to steamy. She moves around a lot and has trouble committing to things. Lily of the Valley is her third full length novel, although she also has several story collections and two novellas available. Her other novels are Forget Me Not, the story that tells Lily’s version of events, and Bitter Fruits, which was available shortly, but is now in the contract phase with a major publisher. When Sarah isn’t writing, she tends to waste a lot of time checking Facebook for pictures of cats, shooting virtual zombies, and simply staring out the window.

AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: 

WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / TWITTER / PINTEREST / TUMBLR

Thank you for stopping by and happy reading! 

Review- Searching For Someday by Jennifer Probst

Summary-

Kate has given up on love—at least for herself. She is both blessed and cursed with the ability to sense a romantic connection between two people—a gift that her family passed down for generations. When Kate launches her own matchmaking company, Kinnection, with her two best friends in a cozy New York town, she has to put aside her own romantic disasters to make her business a success.

But when a furious man stalks into her office and accuses her business of being a scam, Kate is given the ultimate challenge to prove herself. Slade puts himself in her hands and asks Kate to find him love. Enraged at his arrogance but stubbornly eager to prove herself, Kate agrees, dedicating herself to the journey of finding him love...only to find herself falling for him along the way.

Review-

I truly enjoyed Jennifer Probst's Marriage to a Billionaire series so while I was sad that it got over, I was excited for its spin off, which is Searching for Someday. I enjoyed Searching For Someday, I'm not denying that I didn't but I didn't love it as much as her other series. It was a fairly good book.

In Searching For Someday we have Kate. After several horrible dates she has given up on finding true love for herself. Kate has a unique ability to detect the perfect love match. She with her two best friends own a matchmaking company. I liked Kate. She was a nice person and she had her insecurities like all of us do. But I didn't totally love her.

Then we have Slade. Slade is a divorce lawyer. He thinks that Kate and her friends are out there to sham people giving them false hopes of true love. He sets out to prove her wrong by signing himself up for Kate to find his true love. Too bad he's attracted to the match maker herself. Slade was a hard ass. A complete cynic who was hard to warm up to. He was against the institution of love and it took me time to like him.

Kate and Slade together were hot. There is no doubt in my mind that they had chemistry. Jennifer Probst writes amazing intimate scenes with the right amount of sexiness. We get to see all that. What irritated me though, were Kate and Slade. They were highly indecisive, changing their mind about each other after every page. All that denial got repetitive after a while.

What I loved the most about the book though, was the tiny glimpse we got of Wolfe. I am still lusting after him and I really hope he gets a book sometime in the future. I liked Kate's friends Kennedy and Arilyn. Kennedy's book is next. Though I have to say, I didn't like the epilogue very much. If you like contemporary romances you can give Searching For Someday a try.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by the author/publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.

Waiting On Wednesday #66

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

A Beautiful Wedding (Beautiful #2.5) by Jamie McGuire 

Publication Date- December 10th 2013  

Goodreads Summary:

You know that Abby Abernathy unexpectedly became Mrs. Maddox. But what do you really know?

Why did Abby pop the question?
What secrets were shared before the ceremony?
Where did they spend their wedding night?
Who else knew about it . . . and didn’t tell?

Everything about Abby and Travis’s elopement was top-secret . . . until now. Fans of Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster will get all of their questions answered in this whirlwind tale of the wedding day (and night!)—and as with all good stories, this one will definitely have been worth the wait.

More Travis? Hell, YES. Like, right NOW.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday? 

Top Ten Tuesday #8

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books you'd recommend to X person. As far as I'm concerned I love romances and have probably read all kinds of it. So, I'll pick Top Ten Books I'd recommend to a non romance reader. 

My picks are-

1. The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay.

This is one of the best new adult books I've read. It is not cliched and has broken characters. The depth portrayed was amazing.

2. On Dublin Street by Samantha Young.

On Dublin Street has everything you want in a romance novel. Braden is swoon worthy and with all the angst and emotions it makes for a great read.

3. The Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh.

Nalini Singh is the BEST paranormal romance author you'll EVER find. All my use of CAPS cannot show how BRILLIANT her books are.

4. Pushing The Limits series by Katie McGarry

I love Katie McGarry's writing style. She makes young adult books into so much more.

5. Lucky Harbor series by Jill Shlavis

Jill Shlavis has a unique ability to mix sweet and sensual into one. Her Lucky Harbor series make for perfect feel good books.

6. Any book by Colleen Hoover.

Colleen Hoover is one of my favorite authors. She writes gut wrenching emotional scenes and actually makes you work for the happy ending

7. The FBI/U.S.Attorney series by Julie James.

No one can write witty banter like Julie James. Her couples are hot. You have to try one of her books if you haven't before.

8. Any book by Abbi Glines.

Abbi Glines' books are short and sexy. They make for quick reads which always leave you grinning afterwards.

9. The Wallflower series by Lisa Kleypas.

If you haven't tried any historical romances and want to, Lisa Kleypas is the way to go. Her romances and writing are beautiful.

10. Perfect Chemistry series by Simone Elkeles.

Simone Elkeles is one of the best YA authors out there and the Perfect Chemistry series is one of my absolute favorites!

These were my picks. I'm pretty sure someone who doesn't read romance can find a good romance in these picks.

What are your picks?

Review- Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

*This is an early review of Crash Into You by Katie McGarry. 
Publication Date- November 26th 2013

Goodreads Summary:

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane 

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind. 

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look. 

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Pushing The Limits series:

Janhvi's review of Pushing The Limits (Pushing The Limits #1)

Janhvi's review of Crossing The Line (Pushing The Limits #1.5)

Janhvi's and Sarika's reviews of Dare You To (Pushing The Limits #2)

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of Crash Into You by Katie McGarry upon request from Net Galley. We thank Net Galley for the book! 

I still remember that tattooed, pierced, hot and bad guy I met in Pushing The Limits. I so wanted him to end up with his best friend but he didn't and I really felt horrible for him in Dare You To. 
While readers all over the world were swooning over Noah and Ryan, I was desperate for Isaiah to get a story. Then his book finally came, that too one which has a super sexy and super sweet cover. I am so excited that I'll be getting a hardback of it, all thanks to my friend Aman @ Enticed by Books. 
Isaiah is a seventeen year old foster kid who is one of the most amazing guys I have met in books. Crash Into You is his story and it's just as amazing as the guy. Isaiah comes with a I don't give a shit and stay away from me attitude but underneath all those tattoos and piercings is an extremely caring, sweet and protective guy made from years and years of strife, heartbreak and pain. His lines were absolutely amazing and his urge to protect his girl and give her the best he could was admirable. 
I thought I would have problems with Rachel, who is the female protagonist and Isaiah's love interest, but she was a sweet and nice girl and perfect for Isaiah. There were times when I thought that she didn't need to have all those problems she had, but after reading from Isaiah's point of view, I felt it was necessary for her to have as many problems as possible because Isaiah loves to fix things, protect and never break promises. 
Rachel and Isaiah were absolutely perfect and they balanced each other out greatly. Their conversations were extremely adorable yet mature and their chemistry was sizzling. It was such a pleasure to meet Echo, Noah, Beth and Ryan again, as also to meet Rachel's brothers and Isaiah's super cool friend, Abby for the first time. 
Rachel and Isaiah's common love for cars tended to drift me off at times since I don't know much about the subject and the book started out real slow. But keeping aside these two negatives, what made me enjoy Crash Into You was author Katie McGarry's amazing style of portraying her broken and amazing characters. Her writing is so good. 

Overall, in the Pushing The Limits series, Crash Into You wasn't as good as Pushing The Limits but it was really better than Dare You To and on it's own, it was an amazing story about two troubled teenagers who find peace and solace in each other's arms and company.

RATING:

Review- The Jadoo of Your Love by S.R.Saha

Summary-

In the final year of college, Anurag's life was falling apart he vowed never to see Aditya, his best friend of many years again. Of course, what Aditya did was unpardonable! Not just losing his best friend, Anurag's love Urmi too got married to someone else the day unemployed. Anurag got the job of a flight purser in an airline company. But life has its twists and turns and one never knows where it will take him. Anurag too could have never imagined all that happened thereafter. In this page-turner of a spellbinding novel, every reader would ride the crests and troughs of myriad emotions, love, hate, anger, depression, excitement and joy that fill life's every moment and savor the essence of true love that is mystic and magical.

Review-

I thought The Jadoo of your Love would be short, cute read. Turns out, I was really disappointed. I just could not get into the book. Sadly, there was not one single character I could actually relate too and I lost interest in the whole point of the book very soon.

The Jadoo of Your Love is the story f Anurag. It starts from the days when he's in college. He has always been a loner of a guy, except for his friend, Mote. Anurag's parents don't support him very much, so as soon as he gets done with college he applies for a job. I really didn't see the point of all this except for the fact that there was a bond between Anurag and Mote. There is also Urmi, the supposed love of his life.

Then Anurag gets into a job as a flight purser in an airline company. There was just a whole lot of description of the incidents which take place during his job but I could not see it actually going anywhere. Some of the characters were okay, but they could not hold my interest longer than 5 pages.

After an incident happens, which I'm still not sure if it was meant to be hilarious or serious, Anurag gets fired from the airline company. He finds himself broke and unemployed and as a last resort he goes to Mumbai to work for the famed director Ram Gopal Varma. Here Anurag learns the tricks of the trade and soon becomes a director.

Things came way too easily in the last 20 pages of the book for Anurag. He reunites with his long lost best friend and the love of his life and it seems like everything is sorted within minutes. I found it hard to believe. The characters did not have enough depth for me and the plot was not well developed. I had to push myself to finish the book, and it was only 158 pages. I would definitely not recommend this one.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Srishti Publishers in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.

Review- A Wild Rose by Uzma Jafri

Goodreads Summary: 

Ritu Anand. Vivacious television anchor envied by many, makes the biggest mistake of her life. A man is at the center of it all. Who is he? And why is he after her?

Ritu Anand is a strikingly beautiful and wealthy divorcee, all of 25 years. None but her parents and best friend in life, Sumbul, know the truth of her divorce. Her career too, had gone to dust thanks to her failed marriage and traumatic ill-health. To the rest of the world, Ritu maintains a façade of still being married. In an effort to piece her life together again, she goes back to being an anchorperson after 3 long years… 

And a very important part of this new life becomes the enigmatic Anshuman Sinha. Not very tall and with an average physique, deep hazel eyes and sharp intense features, Anshuman is dangerous and irresistible – he is the very picture of 'Ritu's Man'. The devastatingly dashing ‘casanova’ soon has the ‘love starved- Ritu’ eating from the palm of his hand and dreaming of a picture perfect life with him.

The gullible Ritu is soon weaving the tapestry of a picture perfect life, of a happily ever after with her lover. But there is her hidden past to deal with. What was the truth behind her sordid marriage? And coming to the present, what did she know about Anshuman at all?

Will this new life be the chance Ritu was hoping for? Or is this some deep, dark hell?

Has she fallen from the pan straight into the fire?

Is love blooming or have the sinister thorns torn the petals to shreds?

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of A Wild Rose from author Uzma Jafri in exchange for an honest review. We thank Uzma for the book! 

When I first saw the cover and read the summary of A Wild Rose, I thought the book would be emotionally beautiful. Ideally, I would have preferred to give myself some time to contemplate over the story before penning down my final thoughts on it. I, however, have no intentions to take this story with me for long. While the ending of A Wild Rose was exactly the kind of ending I devour, the characters, the story and the writing really put me off. 

Ritu, the protagonist in A Wild Rose, has a dark past about her marriage hiding behind her when she starts working nearly two years after tragedy strikes. A news anchor by profession, Ritu is a beautiful woman who still believes her Prince Charming will come riding on a horse and take her to a place full of eternal love. Her most favourite hobby is spending time with her best friend- Facebook. 

I had a lot of problems with Ritu. It's understandable when someone seems silly because of their innocence and naiveté but it's a whole new level of silly when, after having experienced so much of hurt and heartbreak, a person still seems innocent and naive. And that's how Ritu was. 

When she meets Anshuman, a dashing and well mannered colleague of hers, she easily falls in love with him and in her head, he is the one. I did not get how, after having her dreams shattered once, Ritu easily and willingly gave in to her feelings for Anshuman. Even I, as a reader, could make out there was something totally off about him and it was plain sad that Ritu couldn't see it. 

Also, I did not get her obsession with Facebook. I was once as obsessed with Facebook as Ritu, but it was when I was a teenager. 

Although a very beautiful and smart woman, Ritu at times seemed a bit shallow to me and so did Anshuman. He was such an irritating guy who thought the world could dance on his fingers. And surprise surprise, his charm and chivalry or the ladies’ stupidity- depends on how you look at it- made him do just that. 

Another thing I disliked about A Wild Rose was the writing. There was an amalgamation of the past and present tenses. The dialogues seemed like text messages and the text messages popped out of nowhere. The excessive use and repetition of punctuation marks and sentences along with a change of font where it wasn't needed was annoying to read. Ritu’s voice did not seem like a woman’s at all. I mean, honestly, I didn't care the long details about what she ate and wore. 

Keeping everything I disliked aside, author Uzma Jafri has done a good job in capturing the emotions of a woman on her journey to find love and feel secured and cared. A Wild Rose is a good story that has a lot of potential to be a beautifully emotional read but it wasn't up there for me. And the ending was good for me so that's a tiny plus. Also, I quite liked the red rose significance- it was pretty apt. But overall, especially considering the fact that I had high expectations from it, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to like this book. 

RATING: