COMMAND AND CONTROL by Shelli Stevens

COMMAND AND CONTROL is book Book 2 in Shelli Steven's Holding Out for a Hero series, which can also be a stand alone if you just want to pick this one up but I would recommend reading GOING DOWN which is book one.

Firstly Shelli has on her blog I AM THE AUTHOR YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT, and that couldn't be more true, this isn't your mama's romance. It's sexy and sweet with just enough emotional tug of war you really aren't sure who's side you are on. That is until you are so absorbed in the story that you just can't put it down!

The pain that both Meagan and Trevor go through is heartbreaking but necessary. Trevor's ghosts of his past years fighting in the war in the middle east have taken their toll on his sanity. Half the man he was a year ago and not able to move forward in his personal life he has alienated not just Megan but his entire family. Bruising the relationship to the core, it is just so dark for him that he doesn't feel he will ever see the light.

Megan although is destroyed, she has lost her heart when she lost Trevor, he came back a ghost, a shadow of the man she fell in love with. But she can't get past the soul searing passion they have shared and as desperately as she wants him back she knows in her heart that the old Trevor is gone.

Or so she thinks, Trevor is strong and when he gets hint that she is dating again, he knows simply that it is crap. No matter how many men she dates, they will always be soul mates, they will always be one. Too bad he can't get Megan to see the light. He will have to jump through some serious hoops emotionally to patch up all the open wounds of their relationship. Working his way back one I'm going to rock your world kiss at a time.

And boy does he ever.

Their journey back makes for one hell of a sizzling, light your panties on fire read that will, if you aren't already, a lifetime fan of Shelli Stevens. The passion that bubbles to the surface for these two is undeniable but with all of that reality hits hard and Trevor is forced to face his demons looking back at him in the mirror head on. It's not pretty, but the strength of their love pulls them through just when you think all is lost. Two great characters that shine in their own light with his touching, erotic and breathlessly seductive romance.

He’s afraid of losing his grip. She’s about to untie his last knot…

Megan Asher has a thriving career, looks, self-confidence to spare. It all means little without the love of her life. Trevor has returned from deployment in Afghanistan a haunted man, emotionally distant and unwilling to connect—except in bed. Then even that fragile thread snaps. Brokenhearted, she is forced to call off their wedding and, after a few months’ separation, try to move on.

With every aspect of his life spinning out of his once-legendary control, Trevor Wyatt convinces himself that Megan is better off—and safer—as far away from his demons as possible. Until he comes back to town for his brother’s wedding, and discovers Megan is dating.

Suddenly realizing what he’s thrown away, he vows to breach the fortress she’s built around her heart. They come together in a cataclysm of rekindled passion that unleashes the very demons he never wanted her to witness.

Back to square one, Megan realizes she must take the ultimate risk to slip past Trevor’s defenses. Give him control in the one place she can. The bedroom. The seductive move is one she prays will be the first step in helping heal him and their love.

Publication Date: 12-21-2010
ISBN: 978-1-60928-271-4

You can read more from at Shelli Steven's site . This book is available from Samhain Publishing. You can buy it here !!

Two to Love by Sophie Oak

TWO TO LOVE is Book two by Sophie Oak in the Nights of Bliss, Colorado 2 and although I did read book one and enjoyed it, I felt that this story was far superior and more dramatic as whole. Why? Callie, Zane and Nate. The loss that they all experience will rip your heart out, thing is it starts at the beginning and goes on for a couple of chapters.

Between the time they first meet for one wild weekend that sparks deep feelings for all of them and are reunited once again by fate it has been six years. OK, not so much fate but the secret inner workings of a mutual friend.

Callie's home town is just too much, the cast of characters are pretty out of control and downright hilarious. You have the nudest colony that Callie grew up in, the recluse who lives in a cabin in the woods making his special grain alcohol and is convinced that the aliens are coming for an invasion. One of the best moments from both books is when the town sheriff Rye uses a gamer remote to scan the area for visitors from another world. It was just too much. But now that job is Nate's.

He has come to town in hopes to heal his best friend Zane, they had been undercover for years and now they are no longer working for the government, but that hasn't stopped the bad guy from chasing them.

What they both went through still haunts them, but Nate's knows that nothing will completely heal Zane, nothing but the love of Callie. He is not just scared internally but externally as well he fears that if they ever reunites with her not only will she resent them for lying to her and leaving her without a word all those years ago, but she will think him a scared monster when she looks at him.

Callie captured my heart, she was so innocent yet so alive with passion and acceptance of Nate and Zane from day one of their first meeting and now 6 years later when Nate shows up as the new Sheriff she shows what a tough cookie she can be all the while her poor heart is breaking. Nate acts like he hates her and Zane hasn't even bothered to come to town to see her. The coward. Nate was no exception, but he has this illusion of what Callie and he and Zane could be and when push comes to shove he may not want Zane along for the ride.

There are some serious dangers that could shake up the entire town, not just Callie, Nate and Zane. Dangers they just might not survive, but the great part is that the bad guy always comes in all kinds of different shapes and sizes and what you think is the obvious choice isn't always the way. But I think was endeared me most of all the characters was simply their originality and the gentle hike uphill that author Sophie Oak forces's her three main characters (Nate, Zane and Callie) to travel for their ultimate prize. Once they conquer all their demons happiness, pure unadulterated happiness and love are just over the horizon.

Callie Sheppard went wild once in her life, sharing a perfect weekend with two men she could never forget but thought she would never see again. Nathan Wright and Zane Hollister were two DEA agents who needed a decadent weekend before going on a long, undercover assignment to take down an outlaw biker gang.

Six years later, Callie has to break in a new Sheriff after Rye Harper walked out on the job. But her heart skips a beat when Nate walks through the door in his new uniform. Nate and Zane have come to Bliss, Colorado, to heal. Their cover is blown, and while the Barbarians are almost put out of business, Zane pays a horrible price.

The boys are determined to win back Callie’s broken heart. But when the Barbarians return with revenge in mind, they’ll need to save her before they can claim her.

Read chapter one for free!

'Til Death Do We Part by Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton

I just finished reading this book and I had to take a mental time out to gather my thoughts and repair my heart. The culprit, 'Til Death Do We Part by Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton!

This story centers around three best friends, two of them have been in love since childhood, Erica and Justin. Off in the first Gulf war Justin is captured and presumed dead, leaving behind a fiance (Erica) and his best buddy, Clint, behind. Justin's parents even after seven years missing finally declare their son dead and have a funeral only to parish themselves a few years later in a tragic car accident. Clint, being best friends with Justin and Erica since childhood and carrying a secret crush on her since grade school steps up and is there for Erica emotionally and in every way a friends can be.

Missing 12 years, Justin has returned from the dead, a celebrated POW just trying to capture his life back and continue his life with Erica once again. But it is quite a shock when he learns that Erica and Clint have married. The dynamic between the three, although severely stressed at times there is a bond that can not be severed. It is so compelling, through their pain of life moving on, that reality that Justin now feels left out and lost. No home, no more fiance and no more best friend. But this dynamic tale of three powerful personalities and the friendship that is simple and organic not to mention everlasting between the three is tested and almost stretched beyond it's means.

Such a powerful story, the characters will all three embed themselves under your skin and stay there. I couldn't stop thinking about this story a couple of days after I finished it. The struggle they all go through internally one with their own separate emotions of what Justin's return means, then secondly with the reality of what they have all chosen for their future and third again with a tremendous lost. All of them must learn what happiness, true happiness for each of them even if that includes tremendous sacrifice. More than is bearable.

Since going MIA, Justin Blackwood spent his captivity fighting for the chance to return to the woman he left behind, his fiancée, Erica. Rescued twelve years later, he returns home to discover his best friend and fellow soldier, Clint Michaels, is now her husband.

Clint has loved his best friend’s girl for as long as he can remember. He finally has her love, but bears the burden of a secret that will tear them apart. Now with Justin’s miraculous return, he’s torn between the love he has for his wife and the honor of brotherhood.

Three's Allowed: Rescued by L.E. Harner

I just finished Three's Allowed: Rescued by L.E. Harner, which is a new release from Cobblestone Press and as an avid reader of Erotic Menage Romance I have to say that this was up there with many of the 5 star books I have read.

Right out of the gate we meet the three main characters, Michael, Liz and Graeme, but the reunion for Graeme and Liz isn't in the best of circumstances. She is on the run for her life from her abusive husband. Michael falls into the mix pretty much caught in the middle. He witnesses Liz running literally from her husband trying to get away from him where she has actually been shackled as his prisoner the last week. He is able to help her in her escape and thus the two will forever be tied together.

That is because Michael, the ultimate alpha male can't stand by and let this beautiful and scared women go unprotected, he has volunteered his services and his security agency as a refuge of sorts for Liz. He is also offering it to Graeme as well as they all move into Graeme's house in hopes to weed out Barry, Liz's husband and once and for all capture him. But really they realize they are going to have to kill the man to put an end to the torture. And torture is what Barry is best at.

Liz and Graeme's history goes back to when they were kids, she was ready for the marriage and kids and he wasn't quite sure he could love her and commit as his didn't know who he was. Coming to terms with his sexuality over the last ten years has really put things into perspective for him once Liz is in his house again.

But with Michael there now too, Graeme isn't able to deny his feelings for him as well. The bond they all form is fast but just when they are starting to get to know each other and this new love that is developing between them all Barry captures one of them and lays in his special brand of torture that alters all of their lives forever.

All in all a great plot, I was completely ensnared with every word until the very end. The author has offered up some really believable characters that are truly unforgettable and you can't help but move along the pages with them as if you are a fly on the way watching it all play out in front of you. Suspense, romance, sexy love scenes, simply fantastic! You gotta check it out!!!

Elizabeth Ashford tries to escape her wife-beating husband before he kills her, by running into the wilderness near a highway rest area. Michael Enwright is a self-made millionaire and expert in high tech security. At the first rest stop of his long overdue sabbatical, he sees the fleeing woman and intervenes, saving Elizabeth’s life, while nearly losing his own.

Unfortunately, Michael’s help is misinterpreted by the local Sheriff, Graeme Kennedy, who has Michael handcuffed and face down in the dirt before Elizabeth can set him straight. In order to protect the only woman he ever loved, Graeme is forced to work with Michael and bring both of them to his cabin for protection.

Graeme finally has Elizabeth under his roof, right where he’s always wanted her. So why is he jacking off to visions of the drop dead gorgeous and take-charge Michael? Some things never change. You can read more from at . This book is available from . You can buy it here in .

January Kindle Contest

Moira Rogers is giving away an ereader every month in 2011!

This is her year to spread the digital love, and in January she's excited to be offering a Wi-Fi Kindle 3 & a gift certificate to purchase a skin to go along with it. (Thank you to author Eliza Gayle, who is sponsoring the DecalGirl gift certificate!)

Ready to enter?

Head on over to her blog: http://moirarogers.com/blog/archives/3361

Instructions for entering are listed in full in the blog post. It's easy and free and you could end up with an awesome prize!

Stephanie Rowe CONTEST

Stephanie Rowe is celebrating the release of the first book in her Soulfire series, with the Kiss at Your Own Risk Contest. Together, with The Knight Agency and Sourcebooks Casablanca, Stephanie is asking you what the riskiest thing you’ve ever done for love is… The grand prize is a $100 Amazon gift certificate! There are four ways to enter. More info below and Good Luck!

 

HOW TO PLAY:

Share the riskiest thing you've done for love (or what someone has risked for you) via Twitter or Facebook status updates, commenting on The Knight Agency's official KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK Contest blog post, or emailing http://www.blogger.com/goog_1596737434 with your entry.

The contest period begins on Monday, January 17th at 12:01am Eastern Standard Time and ends on Thursday, January 20th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. The winners will be randomly drawn and announced at Stephanie Rowe's author chat on Thursday, January 20th @ 9pm ET in The Knight Agency chat room.

PRIZES!
Grand Prize Winner: $100 Gift Card to Amazon.com
6 Runners-Up will receive a copy of Kiss at Your Own Risk

Be sure to check out the website for full contest rules and how to submit multiple entries (including how to TRIPLE your contest entries J). Have fun and feel free to share this information with your readers!!

KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK BY STEPHANIE ROWE – IN STORES JANUARY 2011

He needed a killer woman…

Blaine Underhill is one lucky man after having recently escaped a century and a half of imprisonment at the hands of an evil witch. Now he’s determined to save his still-enslaved friend, but in order to do so, he’ll need the help of one of the world’s most lethal women.

She was drop dead gorgeous, literally…

Trinity Harpswell is sick and tired of being a Black Widow. Having managed to go three years without accidentally killing anyone she loves, she’s one short week away from freeing herself from this killer curse forever.

When Blaine tracks her down and convinces her to help him, little does Trinity know that the next seven days are going to be murder!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Four-time RITA Award nominee and Golden Heart Award winner Stephanie Rowe is a nationally bestselling author, and has more than twenty-five contracted titles with major publishers such as HarperCollins, Dorchester and Harlequin. Stephanie has charmed reviewers with her unique blend of humor and otherworldly magic. She lives outside Boston, MA, where she is working on the next two books in the Soulfire Series: Touch if You Dare (July 2011) and Hold Me If You Can (September 2011). For more information, please visit http://www.stephanierowe.com/.

WICKED DESIRES by Eliza Lloyd

 When I first read this book, WICKED DESIRES by Eliza Lloyd, I wasn't in two chapters and I was pretty positive there wasn't going to be a way that the male lead was going to be able to redeem himself in my eyes. Actually, I did want to give him the benefit of the doubt but I was in a constant internal struggle. With that being said there was some underlying current that attracted me to his character, so eventually I am happy to admit that Michael Dunnaway became one hell of a compelling character.

With their marriage seriously on the rocks, Michael's wife Clarissa is at a total loss. The compassion the reader feels immediately is all for her, I felt it that was for sure, but as the real underlying problem became evident I realized that by a simple misunderstanding a wonderful and vibrant marriage is on the brink of destruction.

Michael retreats to gentleman's club, the only place he can release his sexual desires and ease his cautious, and for brief moments almost forgive his wife. He feels that he can no longer go to his wife and has even moved out of their bedroom convinced that she cheated on him with another man he is heartbroken.

Clarissa believes she has lost him to the women of the exclusive club and one night follows him. What she discovers ultimately is her own sexuality, a re-birth of sorts. As her husband has all these new to sexual desires himself, Clarissa learns that she is turned on by them and is surprised how much she too desires the forbidden. At least at the time in history for women.

Thing is that she soon learns to become his weakness disguised as a french courtesan she is offered to Michael in a ruse to try and understand why her husband is going to a gentleman's club and why he won't touch her. Is their marriage really over and can she ever please him again?

All due to a horrible misunderstanding their relationship is on the brink of disaster. It is obvious for me that they two are madly in love with each other, but with so many issues especially the lack of trust with both parties but through and through this is a delicious story of love, redemption and sensuality. Michael and Clarissa are really just so perfect for each other and that becomes evident throughout time with them as Michael starts to realize that there is more to his wife then he had ever imagined.

Eliza Lloyd had written a smart, sensuous, and intensely emotional story that will capture your heart. Witty dialogue and an intriguing storyline help this historical romance come full circle into explicitly sexy and passionate tale of love lost and found again.

Michael Dunnaway has it all—a wife he loves, three sons, an earldom. Except he isn’t getting any younger—and his body lets him know in a way that makes him doubt his masculinity. His impotence with Clarissa drives him to seek out new thrills. He’s contemplating giving up everything for the satisfaction he finds with a nubile French whore, but with the pleasure comes guilt. Is betraying the love of his life worth temporary gratification and the restoration of his confidence?

Clarissa has entered a world of shocking passions and unheard of acts, welcoming Michael with open arms. Hidden behind a mask, and with the help of a whorehouse madam, she finds she’d do just about anything to win her husband back. But will it be enough? And will the deep cravings they explore as strangers reveal more devastating secrets? Or will they discover their dark passion and wicked desires can lead to a greater love?

You can read more from at Ellora's Cave . This book is available from Ellora's Cave . You can buy it here in e-book fomat .

Guest Author Marie Force

How Much of Me Is In My Characters?

By: Marie Force

I am asked this question often: how much of yourself do you put in your characters? Some characters are more like me than others. Sam Holland, the heroine in my Fatal Series, shares a few things with me, but for the most part she is totally different. In the similarities column is her relationship with her father. She is devoted to her dad the same way I’m devoted to mine. We’re both involved with our siblings, nieces and nephews. We’re both workaholics who have serious diet soda addictions.

That’s about where the similarities end. Sam can kick some serious ass. My 12-year-old can take me in a wrestling match. To be honest, I think he was nine the first time he beat me… Suffice to say, I’m a big ole wimp compared to Sam. She has been cursed with major infertility issues. I was lucky to have two healthy babies, albeit by C-section, but whatever. They arrived and thrived. Sam may never get to experience that joyous experience.


Sam is not afraid of much. I’m afraid of everything. I am the easiest person to scare, and my family loves to take full advantage of my jump-out-of-my-skin reflex. Sam would just roll her eyes and go on with her day. Here’s a little bit of Sam in action:


Moving slowly, her gun leading the way, Sam crept toward the back door. Another clatter rang through the alley, announcing the presence of a cat, a raccoon or a foolish perp returning to the scene of a crime. Sam hoped and prayed it was the latter. The door swung open.


“Freeze!” Sam caught a brief glimpse of Reese’s startled face before he turned and bolted. “Freeze, police!” She took off after him, down the back steps and through a fetid alley stacked three feet deep on both sides with trash. Normally, she might’ve taken a shot at him, but he was no good to her dead. He had information she desperately needed. Hoping Freddie would cut Reese off at the other end of the alley, Sam chased after him, her thighs burning from the exertion, her lungs tight from the cold air pumping in and out.


Reese looked back, saw she was gaining on him and fired an erratic shot over his shoulder. The bullet whizzed past Sam’s right ear, fueling her rage and her desire to catch him. That might’ve worked on my dad, you son of a bitch, but it’s going to take more than a cheap shot to take me down. Running on adrenaline, she jumped over the bag of trash he threw in her path, came down on a patch of black ice and went flying.


Her chin took the full brunt of the fall. Sam howled with pain and tried to get her unarmed hand down to break the second half of the fall. Elbows and knees connected with hard pavement. She looked up in time to see Reece round the corner at the end of the alley. Freddie was nowhere in sight.


For a long moment, Sam lay there assessing her injuries and trying to catch her breath. The cold air made breathing painful, but that pain was nothing compared to the burn in her chin, knees and elbows. Forcing herself to move, she got up and called for backup to start a canvas of the neighborhood. Clearly, Reese hadn’t gone far after butchering his family.


I’d cower behind a pile of trash before I’d venture into a dark alley to chase a guy with a gun. What about you? Are you more like me or Sam? I’ll give a copy of Fatal Justice, book 2 in my Fatal Series, to one commenter today. I’m also happy to take any questions readers might have about the Fatal Series or any of my other books, including my Feb. 1 print release, Everyone Loves a Hero. Sam and Nick are also happy to take questions! If you want to talk writing, parenting teenagers, puppies and senior citizens, I’m your girl. If you want to talk about the new season of the Bachelor and whether Brad will actually choose someone this time around, bring it on! Thanks again for having me!

You can find Fatal Justice here: http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ under the Romantic Suspense tab or anywhere ebooks are sold.


Marie Force is the author of FATAL AFFAIR (June 2010) and FATAL JUSTICE (Jan. 2011), Books 1 and 2 in her new Fatal Series from Harlequin’s Carina Press. Book 3, FATAL CONSEQUENCES, is coming in July 2011, FATAL DESTINY in September 2011 and FATAL FLAW in February 2012. “This novel is ‘The O.C. does D.C.,’ and you just can’t get enough.” (RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars for FATAL AFFAIR). In its July 2010 issue, RT Book Reviews named Marie a “Future Star of Romantic Suspense.”


Marie is the author EVERYONE LOVES A HERO (Feb. 2011), LINE OF SCRIMMAGE (Sept. 2008) and LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT (July 2009). Of LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, Booklist said, “With its humor and endearing characters, Force’s charming novel will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, reaching far beyond sports fans.” Wild on Books said, “LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT by Marie Force is most definitely a keeper. It is an astounding book. I loved every single word!” Marie is also the author of TRUE NORTH and THE FALL, available as ebooks via Amazon.com and Smashwords.


Since 1996, Marie has been the communications director for a national organization similar to RWA. She is a member of RWA’s New England, From the Heart and Published Author Special Interest Chapters.


While her husband was in the Navy, Marie lived in Spain, Maryland and Florida, and she is now settled in her home state of Rhode Island. She is the mother of Emily, 15, Jake, 12, and a feisty dog named Brandy.


Find her at http://www.mariesullivanforce.com/, on her blog at http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com/, where she runs the popular weekly Romance & Oreos Book Club, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Force/248130827909, and on Twitter at twitter.com/MarieForce. Marie loves to hear from readers. Contact her at marie@marieforce.com.