Review- More Than You Know by Jennifer Gracen

Summary-

Hotel owner Dane Harrison, middle brother of a wealthy Long Island family, needs a lounge singer for his new luxury property. With her stunning voice and amazing curves, Julia Shay is perfect. She also seems be the only woman in New York City who isn’t falling at Dane’s feet. And despite her feisty attitude and his rule against workplace affairs, he wants her—in his arms, in his bed, anywhere and everywhere.

Julia loves her new job, and she knows better than to think she can keep itand Dane. Even if he wasn’t her boss, Julia’s painful history has given her ample reason to steer clear of rich, powerful charmers. Still, their chemistry is unlike anything she’s known, and when it becomes too much to resist, they agree to one no-strings night together. But instead of quenching the fire, the intense encounter only proves how much they have to lose—or win…


Review-

More Than You Know by Jennifer Gracen caught my eye because of the beautiful cover and the summary. I was curious to see how the story went and I am always up for a romance. While I did like More Than You Know, I enjoyed some parts more than the others. While I was not mind blown by More Than You Know, it was still an all right read.

Let's start with Dane. Dane Harrison is the owner of multiple hotels and a self made millionaire, though he comes from old money. With the opening of his new hotel he is searching for the perfect lounge singer. This is where he finds Julia. I really liked Dane. Though he was infamous for his playboy attitude we never once got to actually see him in action. He is genuinely smitten by Julia and I liked that his intentions towards her were always pure.

Julia has been through a lot in life. I was happy to read about a heroine who is in her forties. This is an older female younger man romance and I liked that. What I didn't like was Julia as a person. Yes, I understood that she had been through a lot and that life was difficult but sometimes her actions were that of a girl than a woman. Julia irritated me at times and that is the only flaw in the book.

I liked how the romance went between Julia and Dane. Both of them had loads of chemistry and they weren't afraid to act on it. I didn't like the way Julia treated Dane at times even though he hadn't given her any reason to doubt him. Julia and Dane were definitely intense together.

I also really liked all the side characters. We get to meet Dane's siblings and I hope we get stories for each one of them because they deserve it. I also really liked Julia's friends who were nothing but a solid support system for her. All in all, More Than You Know was a good read but I feel that it could have been better.

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

Waiting On Wednesday #144

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

Mine to Protect by Cynthia Eden

Publication Date: December 15th, 2015

Summary-

He agreed to protect her...not love her.

Victor Monroe left behind a brutal past when he decided to become an FBI Agent. He knows that other agents think he's too cold, that he has ice in his veins, but he doesn't care what folks say about him. He gets the job done--always. No matter the cost.

Then he's blackmailed into guarding...her.

Zoe Peters, ex-showgirl, daughter of a mob boss and drug dealer, a witness who wants to vanish. Zoe is wild, beautiful, and on far too many hit lists. It's now Victor's job to keep her safe--a job that Zoe makes damn difficult. But keeping her alive is his mission. It's supposed to be strictly professional between them. Just another case. Only...

He never counted on falling for her.

Zoe is not the woman he expected. She isn't cold or hard. She lights up the room when she walks into it, and despite the hell surrounding her, Zoe isgood. Probably too good for Victor because Zoe doesn't know about the secret deal that Victor worked out with her father. Zoe doesn't know that Victor intended to use her for information and then turn her over to waiting operatives.

Desire wasn't supposed to enter the equation. The white-hot lust he feels for Zoe should have never threatened Victor's legendary self-control. But she's under his skin...melting his ice...getting to him... Soon Victor doesn't care about the law or about the lines he has to cross for Zoe. She is his priority. Victor will not rest until every threat to her has been eliminated. And then...

Zoe will be his.

I have been looking forward to Victor's story since a long time.

What are you waiting on? :)

Book Blitz- Karmic Kids by Kiran Manral

Karmic Kids 

The Story of Parenting Nobody Told You !

by 

Kiran Manral 

Synopsis 

Move aside Tiger Mom and forget Helicopter Parenting, Karmickids is the view from the other side of the fence – of laid back parenting, of giving in to food jags, of making unstructured play time mandatory and of not bursting a blood vessel when your child’s grades are not something you might want to discuss in public.

A roller coaster ride of love, laughter, and a few tears, Manral takes you through the beautiful chaos of the early years of parenthood. Written in a gently humorous style, this home grown, hit-the-ground-running account of the chaos of day-to-day parenting is peppered with anecdotes, reminiscences, a little practical advice and is a non-preachy, hilarious take on raising a spirited child while retaining one’s good spirits through it all.

Grab your Copy: Amazon | Flipkart 

What others say about Kiran Manral 

“I enjoy reading Kiran’s books. The genre of easy reading and happy reading with inevitable style, she keeps you hooked on the book from the first page to the last.”-- Tisca Chopra, actor

“This quick paced, fun new book had me enthralled.”--Tara Sharma Saluja, Actress and Co-producer and host of The Tara Sharma Show

“Kiran's writing style is witty, humorous and makes you think. She has a penchant for making even the most mundane, interesting because of the razor sharp observations, served with a dollop of dead-pan humour.” --PreetiShenoy, bestselling author

“Kiran's writing is that rarity in today's world - the ability to be really good without taking itself too seriously. This is writing that is effortless in its humourand also its fluidity. It asks not for heavy literary criticism but for a certain laid-back enjoyment.” --Parul Sharma, bestselling author

"Kiran's stories are fun, engaging and always fresh - and her droll style, of course, inimitable!"-- Yashodhara Lal, bestselling author

“Kiran's writing is delightful, her wit inimitable and her sense of romance untarnished by cynicism that is so typical of our times.”— ShunaliKhullar Shroff,  bestselling author

“Kiran Manral's sparkling sense of humour leaps off the page, every page. Her blog posts, books and columns have given me great joy over the years. She has a distinct original voice that brought a breath of fresh air in the world of Indian Writing in English.” – Devapriya Roy, Bestselling author  

About the Author 

Kiran Manral worked as a journalist with The Asian Age and The Times of India before she quit full time work to be a full time mommy. One of the leading bloggers in India, her blogs were listed in Labnol's list of India's top blogs, and her parenting blog, Karmickids, was ranked among the top five parenting blogs in India by Blogadda. She was also a Tehelka blogger columnist on gender issues.

She was listed among the 10 non-celebrity 'social media stars' on twitter by the TOI and IBN Live named her as among the 30 most interesting Indian women to follow on twitter and among the top 10 Indian moms to follow on twitter in 2013. Fashion 101.in named her as amongst the most stylish authors in India. Womensweb.in listed her as one of the 20 women authors from India to be followed on twitter.

Post the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai, she founded India Helps, a volunteer network to help disaster victims post 26/11 and has worked on long term rehabilitation of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack victims and 13/7 Mumbai bomb blast victims, amongst others. She was part of core founding team behind Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month (www.csaawarenessmonth.com) and Violence Against Women Awareness Month (www.vawawareness.wordpress.com), two very well received social media awareness initiatives.

Her debut novel, The Reluctant Detective, was published by Westland and her second novel Once Upon A Crush, was published by Leadstart a couple of years later. Her third book All Aboard!was published by Penguin Random House in August 2015. Karmic Kids is her fourth book and first nonfiction book. She has one more book due for release in 2015.

She is on the planning board of the Kumaon Literary Festival, an advisor on the Board of Literature Studio, Delhi, an Author Mentor at sheroes.in and a columnist at iDiva.com. She was awarded the Women Achievers award by Young Environmentalists Group in 2013.

She currently blogs and is on Twitter.

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Pinterest | LinkedIn

Review- 10 Rules of F**G Around by Vicky Arora

Goodreads Summary:

Ronnie is 18 and wants to hook up with as many hot chicks as possible. Since practice makes a man perfect, he practices every day with different partners or multiple partners. His philosophy: Footiyas will choke themselves with just one girl. Footiyas? Oh, the guys who go to an ice cream shop if their girlfriends say 'I like chocolate flavour' and not to the chemist.

He shares his flat with DJ who has perfected the art of happy hour nights. To DJ, even an easy addition sum of 1+1 equals to 'happy hour'. 
And there's Bhaskar - cute, studious, nice guy, whose assignments everyone copies. He thinks no girl likes him and wants a girlfriend desperately.

Ronnie decides to help with his 10 rules, which when applied correctly can get anyone the girl of their dreams. Rules which are a sure short way of helping him get a girl. But the rules can also get them in trouble if they backfire and unleash the wrath of a woman scorned. 
Will his rules help them mount the pinnacle? or will Ronnie fall short of expectations?

REVIEW:

From the looks of it, I had a feeling that 10 Rules of F**G Around would be a silly yet funny read, and that is exactly what it turned out to be. I do mean funny in a very positive sense, because the book made me laugh many times. However, when it comes to silly, the book was very dumb to the point that all the sexist thoughts in it annoyed and irritated me to no end. So while it was comic most of the time, I cannot possibly deny the fact that it was way too sexist and full of female objectification for my feminist taste. 

10 Rules of F**G Around is written in the first person's point of view where the reader gets in the head of spoilt brat Ronnie Kapoor who is a self-proclaimed bad boy and hence, considers himself a charmer. Now I have nothing against bad boys and self pride, but the whole playing games to get the girl (in bed) drama was simply unnecessary and immature. I mean, Ronnie wants every other girl he sees to sleep with him and that's unacceptable. At least, there was some conversation between him and the girls, so the book wasn't all about sex. Thank heavens! However, the excessive use of Hindi in an English book and the ridiculously pathetic mention of Honey Singh songs almost regularly got on my nerves. 

Like I mentioned before, the book did make me laugh because of Ronnie's sense of humour and that's the reason why it gets an extra star from me, but when I look at it closely, I cannot bring myself to accept, let alone like, the book. For a quick read, yes, it was fun, silly and helped pass time, but true as it could be, I just detest reading about boys who only look at women as sexual objects. If it weren't all about getting the girl in bed, but just about Ronnie's life in general, I would have thought of liking the book more. 

*A copy of 10 Rules of F**G Around by Vicky Arora was provided by Quickies- Srishti Publishers and Distributors in exchange for an honest review. We thank them for the book. 

RATING: 

Review- Secret Santa Baby by Robin Covington

Summary-

Tessa Stoneman hasn’t been able to get long-time friend and business partner Nicholas Boone out of her head since they shared a single kiss in college. Even when she dated Nicholas’s best friend. Now that she’s giving up her position at GameNerdz to strike out on her own—and now that she’s single—maybe it’s the right time to see if there’s still something between them.

Nicholas knows once Tessa leaves the company she helped found, they might drift apart. Before she starts her own company in the new year, he wants to woo the woman he fell in love with during college. So he poses as her Secret Santa, gifts her with items from the song “Santa Baby,” and plans a big reveal at the company holiday party. But when his best friend wants to rekindle his romance with Tessa, will Nicholas lose his last chance?


Review-

Secret Santa Baby looked like a really cute friends to lovers romance and that is the reason I decided to pick it up. It was silly of me but I thought that this was a full length book so I was surprised to find out that it was a novella. I don't enjoy novellas as much as I like full length books but still Secret Santa Baby turned out to be a very cute read.

Tessa has been working at GameNerdz with her two friends since she got out of college. When she was young she picked the wrong friend to be with but now that is over and all she wants is Nicholas. I really liked Tessa. She was a nice heroine. She was hesitant to take her friendship forward with Nicholas but she was more than halfway in love with him.

Nicholas has always regretted letting Tessa get away when they were in college. But now Damien and she have been over for a while so he decides to make his move. I found Nicholas to be really charming with his British accent and gentlemanly behaviour. Nicholas is completely in love with Tessa and it was really cute seeing him woo Tessa with his gifts.

Nicholas and Tessa were great together. Though we don't get to see a lot of their past or their friendship it was easy to see that they were perfect for each other. They just had to confess their feelings for each other. Secret Santa Baby was a short and cute read which I liked.

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

Review- Blurring the Lines by Marisa Cleveland

Summary-

He broke all his rules... for her.

Real estate development CEO Blake Whitman is an Aquarius with a philanthropic nature, but when it comes to work, he's driven and focused, and he would never, ever mix business with pleasure. As far as he's concerned, office romance is off the table.

He also never backs down from a challenge, and Kira Layton just accused him of ruining the community. What better way to get her on his side than to hire her?

But the more he tells himself to keep his hands off his new, sexy secretary, the harder it is for him to come up with reasons why office romances never work and why it's a bad idea to cross the line...


Review-

Blurring the Lines was a read I picked off randomly from Netgalley. I didn't have many expectations from the book but to my surprise I ended up really enjoying Blurring the Lines. Blurring the Lines, is a book based on the zodiac sign Aquarius which gave a little something more to the book. I really liked the main characters, Blake and Kira which was why I enjoyed reading their story.

Let's start with Blake. Blake Whitman is a real estate development CEO. He is an out and out workaholic who doesn't have time for much in his life. He loves his work and that keeps him occupied. I really liked Blake. He tries hard not to be attracted to Kira whom he manages to finagle a deal out of but he can't help himself. I also liked how he changed his ways and adjusted for Kira. Blake was a great hero.

Then we have Kira. Kira was one of the sweetest and most sorted heroines I've read till date. She knew what she wanted from life and it wasn't money or a great career. I loved how Kira was so passionate about fostering animals and how she cared about her town's heritage and the well being of society. All in all, Kira was a modern, independent and intelligent lady. 

I loved the chemistry Kira and Blake shared. Though they both try to maintain the secretary boss relationship there are sparks flying all over the place. I loved the conversations Kira and Blake shared and nothing was rushed between them. It is a bit of a slow burn situation but the awareness is always there. They were really cute together.

Marisa Cleveland manages to write a beautiful love story complete with depth and complexity. I also liked the few side characters we got with Blake's brother Keith and Kira's friend Tish. With minimum angst and loads of fun times Blurring the Lines was a really good read.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by the publishers from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.

Waiting on Wednesday #143

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

Crashed Out by Tessa Bailey

Publication Date: December 7th, 2015

Summary-

His inspiration. His torment. And his temptation...

Jasmine Taveras is the reason Sarge Purcell grabbed his six-string and bailed the hell out of New Jersey four years ago. She's the fuel for every song he's ever written-each one laced with bitter, hard-edged, hungry lust. Now, with his hugely successful band is on temporary hiatus, Sarge is determined to prove to Jasmine that this "kid" turned into every inch the man she's always needed...

Men are slim pickings for a single factory girl in Hook, New Jersey...until tall, broad-shouldered hotness walks-or rather storms-into Jasmine's life. Sarge's return shouldn't affect her this way. He's her best friend's much younger kid brother, and the kind of rough, gritty, sexiness Jasmine has no right to taste for herself. Even if he lets her.

But lust is a blinding, insatiable force. And when it crashes, it will take both Sarge and Jasmine down with it...

A new book by Tessa Bailey, yes please!

What are you waiting on? :)