Slip of the Tongue by Jessica Hawkins

My 4.5 Stars Review

“He wants me-he told me as much to my face. Nathan has said he doesn’t. How far are they willing to go ? How far am I?”

Jessica Hawkins is one of my favorite authors. This may be fangirling, but I will read every book she writes ! She has a gift to capture emotions in her writing and suck the reader in her story. Her books tend to involve love triangles and cheating. This is usually not my favorite type of books, but I know that this author will deliver a captivating and brilliant story, with a good dose of angst and I was not disappointed !
She brings here a realistic and honest reflection on married life, communication, trust and fate, told entirely in the h POV.

Sadie and Nathan Hunt used to be a happy couple in a perfect marriage. But since a few months, Sadie has the feeling to be alone in her marriage. Nathan’s behavior has become distant and even hostile at times. Sadie feels rejected and is at a loss. She doesn’t recognize her husband. When she meets her new neighbor, Finn, she finds some comfort in their friendly discussions. As the emotional distance between her and Nathan gets greater, she gets closer to Finn. There is the forbidden thrill to break the rules and the positive feeling of making someone happy. Finn wants her, Nathan doesn’t. But in this case, mistakes can’t be undone.

Nathan was not easy to like. Though he used to be a caring and generous husband, his closed off attitude and frequent absences led Sadie to devastating conclusions. At times, I was very angry at him. As the story progressed, I understood him better and the author managed to change my perspective on his character. Finn was fairly easy-going, he was at a crossroads in his life, emotionally and professionally. He wants a new start with Sadie but is she prepared to a future without Nathan ?

This story was not an easy read for me. Love triangles make me nervous ! But the writing style is just phenomenal. This book is a great page-turner with all the feels in true Jessica Hawkins style. It was an incredibly emotional ride. To put it simply, I loved it !

I highly recommend this brilliant author’s books ! Her voice is truly unique !

ARC gratefully received from the author in exchange for my honest review.

 

Blog Tour : Slip of the Tongue by Jessica Hawkins

 

 

Sadie Hunt isn’t perfect—but her husband is. Nathan Hunt has her coffee waiting every morning. He holds her hand until the last second. He worships the Manhattan sidewalk she walks on. Until one day, he just…stops. And Sadie finds herself in the last place she ever expected to be. Lonely in her marriage.

When rugged and sexy Finn Cohen moves into the apartment across the hall, he and Sadie share an immediate spark. Finn reveals dreams for a different life. Sadie wants to save her marriage. Their secrets should keep them apart, not ignite a blistering affair. But while Sadie’s marriage runs colder by the day, she and Finn burn hotter.

Her husband doesn’t want her anymore. The man next door would give up everything to have her.

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In his dimly-lit kitchen, Finn lays a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I have to tell you something.”

My hairline prickles. I can sense whatever he says will be heavy, and I’m not sure I want to hear it. I force a crooked smile that probably looks as awkward as I feel. Since I just fed Ginger, I joke, “What? I smell like dog food?”

“I want to kiss you,” he says without missing a beat. “I won’t, but I just thought you should know.”

My stomach drops as if I’m in free fall. I bite my lip involuntarily, then release it, afraid it’ll look like an invitation. Can he really come out and say that? Without prompting, without wavering? You can want to kiss someone and not say it. Should I be angry he confessed that? I’m not. I’m curious. Stirred, even. And because we’re being honest, I ask what I want to ask. “Why?”

“Why do I want to kiss you? Or why did I tell you?”

My heart rate picks up. I lose my nerve. “The second one. That’s not the kind of thing you just come out and say to a stranger. A married stranger.”

“I like you.” He absentmindedly caresses the nape of my neck with his fingertip. “So I want to be honest.”

I put my hand over his wrist, and he stops. Now, and for the last hour, it’s as if we’re the only two people on the planet. The Bad Wife and the Stranger. If I let him kiss me, nobody would ever know. After all, Nathan might be kissing someone else too. Why else would he have lipstick on his tie? Finn doesn’t wear lipstick. Neither do I. It would be our secret.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” he asks.

Am I? I have to. I don’t trust myself to stay, and I don’t trust myself to speak, so I nod. I don’t have to pull his hand away. He takes it back willingly. And he walks me to his door.

 

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Jessica Hawkins grew up between the purple mountains and under the endless sun of Palm Springs, California. She studied international business at Arizona State University and has also lived in Costa Rica and New York City. To her, the most intriguing fiction is forbidden, and that’s what you’ll find in her stories. Currently, she resides wherever her head lands, which is often the unexpected (but warm) keyboard of her trusty MacBook.

 

Cover Reveal : A Mess of a Man by A. M. Hargrove & Terri E. Laine

Social Butterfly PR is proud to team up with A.M. Hargrove & Terri E. Laine to share their cover for

A Mess of a Man releasing March 21, 2016!

Womanizer, Man Whore, Player, Heartbreaker are all familiar names to Ben Rhoades. He prefers Money Man or Sex God, but he doesn’t let other people’s opinions rule him. And he’s only gotten worse without his compass, his best friend, whose devastating death at a young age has taught him a valuable lesson about not getting too close to anyone … ever. Until one smart and stubborn woman with eye-catching curves throws him for a loop and refuses to be tamed.

Samantha Calhoun has her life on track even after the shattering break-up with the guy she’d thought she’d wanted to marry. With her chin held high, she focuses on her career, building her business and making a success of it all. Only a chance meeting has her lost in a set of alluring steel gray eyes that have her steps faltering and her heart leaping out of her chest. Forewarned by not-so-flattering rumors plus his no-holds-bar rules, she tries desperately to play his game while guarding her heart.

Only they have no idea of the journey they’re about to undertake when their lives collide. Ultimately they’ll tackle the biggest test of their lives because she is his game changer. The one, who through the
ensuing wreckage, can domesticate the mess of a man that he is.

There is finality to the sound of the door closing behind her. A sort of tormenting peace knowing the end has come. It’s not like I should have expected things to go on this way for long. How could they?

I stare holes in the walls as if I can still see her, the one woman I let in.

Sweeter than peach cobbler, she hardly has a bad thing to say about anybody—until now. Her parting description of me, beginning with ass and ending with hole, reverberates through my hollow heart, as I stand here rooted to my spot. I’m not even shocked, as this isn’t the first time I’ve been on the receiving end of that sentiment. I’m only surprised because I don’t think I’ve ever heard her so much as mutter a single curse word before. And the first time I do, it’s aimed squarely at me.

My hands tighten around a tumbler filled with amber liquid before I toss back its contents hoping for oblivion or something close to it. This road is so familiar. Only this time is different. I never cared like I do now. She means more to me than a quick fuck. Hadn’t I been about to tell her just that? How could
things have gone wrong so fast?

Don’t be a dumbass. You can still fix this.

Instead, I stubbornly stay embedded to my spot because nothing can change the outcome. It’s a truth she and I know will haunt me until my last breath. And it’s created a wall between us I’m unable to climb she and I know will haunt me until my last breath. And it’s created a wall between us I’m unable to climb … even if you gave me a damn ladder.

I’ve never been much of a risk-taker when it comes to matters of the heart. I can fill a bank account with a number having many zeros behind it from my astute choices in the market. But I can’t be a man a woman stays with. Hadn’t I warned her about that too?

Unable to see past my own shitty existence, I long for her to come back. I want to believe it’s all been some kind of mistake and I can forget what I know to be true. As the seconds continue to tick by, the inevitability that things are really over sinks in. My window of opportunity quickly closes as fast as her
car door slams and the engine fires to life.

She’s so close, yet miles away. The longer I let the minutes expand between us I know distance won’t make the heart grow fonder. But maybe it’s for the best. Love, or whatever masquerades as it, just isn’t enough for the dirty, fucked up truth. Right when things were better than I ever expected, facts messed it up.

Groaning, I launch the crystal glass worth a small fortune at the door I can’t seem to force myself towards. A beautiful show of light plays off the shards as they cascade down in an explosion of fireworks. Visually, it’s what I feel inside as desolation constricts and then obliterates my chest because the best thing I ever had is gone … leaving me with only the certainty I’m meant to be with her.

I love you, I whisper for the first time and in place of goodbye. She left me and will never hear it. I can only pray we both survive what’s to come.

A.M. HARGROVE 

 One day, on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. Hargrove, realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn’t do something
soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So, she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodge ball pro and had über quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad guilty
about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what laptop out the window. She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone, called
her boss, and quit her job. Grinning, she made another call to her hubs and
told him of her new adventure (after making sure his heart was beating properly
So began A. M. Hargrove’s career as a Naughty and Nice Romance Author.

Her books include the following: Edge of Disaster, Shattered Edge and Kissing Fire (The Edge Series); The Guardians of Vesturon Series (Survival, Resurrection, Determinant, reEmergent, and Beginnings); Dark Waltz, Death
Waltz, Tragically Flawed (Tragic 1), Tragic Desires (Tragic 2), Exquisite Betrayal, Dirty Nights; and lastly Freeing Her, Freeing Him, and Kestrel—all part of the Hart Brothers Series.

Other than being in love with writing about love, she loves chocolate, ice cream, and coffee and is positive they should be added as part of the USDA food groups.

FACEBOOK | WEBSITE | TWITTER

 

TERRI E. LAINE

 Terri E. Laine is an avid reader and the co-author of Cruel & Beautiful. When she isn’t writing romance with heart and heat, she is crazily managing a household with her husband and three kids.

FACEBOOK | WEBSITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS

 

RoomHate by Penelope Ward

My 3.5 stars review

“I reminded myself of my plan to kill him with kindness.”

Amelia Payne and Justin Banks were childhood friends, until Amelia discovered her best friend kept something important from her and left without a word of explanation to live with her father.
Nine years later, Justin and Amelia are forced to meet again when Amelia’s grandmother leaves both of them a half of her summerhouse on Rhode Island.

Their first encounter after all those years is not precisely friendly. Justin is angry and really mean to Amelia. While I found that some of his remarks were funny, some others were rather over-the-top ! Not to mention that he did not come alone to the summerhouse, but with his girlfriend, Jade.
So, the starting point of this story is not really a happy old friends gathering !

Amelia doesn’t want them to remain virtual strangers and does all she can to reestablish a dialogue with Justin, trying to explain the reasons why she left. Little by little, both realize they have been foolish for wasting so many years in bitterness and estranged. They can’t deny the attraction they feel for each other. But Justin still has a girlfriend waiting for him in New-York. Is there any chance for a happy future together for them, especially when Amelia learns something that will change her life forever ?

Overall, I enjoyed this ex-friends/enemies to lovers story. It is a well-written and easy read, told in Amelia’s POV (at the exception of the epilogue). But the offensive and over-the-top attitude of Justin during the first part of the book somewhat spoiled the story for me and I could never really connect with his character.

Crow (Boston Underworld #1) by Ashleigh Zavarelli

My 4 Stars Review

Loyalty is a value Mackenzie Wilder doesn’t take lightly.  She is ready to do whatever it takes to discover what happened to her best friend, Talia, a foster kid from the projects like her. To do that, she needs to follow the steps of her friend in the Irish and Russian mafia related underworld of the city.

Mackenzie is a strong, sassy heroine. She comes from a boxing champions family and it’s not a fight against the Irish syndicate champion that will stop her!  In fact, it’s exactly what she needs to get Lachlan Crow’s attention. A high-ranking syndicate member, he is a mysterious and dangerous man. The attraction between them is instant but they don’t trust each other and have both a hidden agenda. Not a very sound start of a relationship, obviously !

I enjoyed the heroes interactions, their easy banter, the way Mack is never afraid of Lachlan and likes to push his buttons. As their relationship progressed and the lines started to blur, Lachlan becomes more and more protective of Mack. Not an easy feat, as she refuses to be considered as a damsel in distress. But could the syndicate become Mack new family ?

I enjoyed this action-packed and suspenseful story, with an incredibly badass heroine and a controlling alpha hero. This story was different from the other books I read by Ms. Zavarelli, but I really like her writing. I would however have enjoyed feeling more the emotional connection of the main characters. This book is the first in the “Boston Underworld” series, and I can’t wait for the next one !

Pretty Broken Girl by Jeana E. Mann

My 4 Stars Review

Well, this book was a good surprise ! I love to discover new authors and the blurb of this book caught my attention. As it happens, Jeana E. Mann is an author I will definitely follow in the future. Her writing is very engaging, I simply could not put this book down. What really stood out for me is the way she writes sexual tension, and this story has it in spades !

Dakota Atwell and Samuel Seaforth used to be each other’s universe.  They believed their young love was stronger than anything else.  Against all odds, and despite Samuel’s father threats, they married at 18.  But two years later, Dakota left Samuel without a word of explanation. Deeply hurt, Samuel has never been able to forget her.

Ten years later, they are forced to meet again, when Samuel takes over the company Dakota works for.  According to his usual ruthless modus operandi, he intends to dismantle and absorb it in his own company.  He didn’t count on having to keep his ex-wife on board. As much as he loved her, he now wants to break her.  But he is haunted by the thought of her. Dakota has never forgiven herself for what she has been forced to do for the sake of her family. Both of them are trying very hard, but often failing, to hide their emotions. Their struggle was heartbreaking. But can Sam forgive Dakota and give their love a second chance ?

“I looked into his eyes, needing reassurance, and found a cautious vulnerability that squeezed my heart. Deep inside this beautiful, angry man resided the boy I’d loved. The boy I’d hurt. The love of my life. The need to heal his wounds, to repair the damage I’d done, swept through me like an updraft of spring wind.”

I really enjoyed this book. I must admit I had some problems believing Samuel’s passive attitude when he was confronted with Dakota’s decision to divorce, but apart from that, I found that the author did a great job with this story.  She combines past and present storytelling, with dual POV, which helps a lot to understand the characters. Dakota and Samuel’s story continues in the second book in the series, “Pretty Filthy Lies”. And, of course, I hope for an happy ending !

 

The Daughters of Palatine Hill by Phyllis T. Smith

My 4.5 stars Review

This book was captivating, I read it into the wee hours of the morning ! In my opinion, it fits perfectly the definition of historical fiction : it is based on known historical facts, but it recreates a whole universe during the reign of emperor Caesar Augustus and gives life to its characters thanks to the author’s creativity and excellent storytelling.

The story is based on the intertwined points of view of Livia, emperor Augustus last wife and his one true love, Julia, his only daughter and Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, held captive in Rome after the death of her parents.

The author gives a nuanced picture of Livia and Julia, and shows the social condition and actual power of women close to the emperor in Ancient Rome. They had to find their place in a very dangerous world and were expected to serve the emperor’s dynastic interests. For Julia, this meant arranged marriages with the expectation of producing an heir for the empire. For Cleopatra Selene, this meant ensuring her survival by all means, never showing her true feelings towards the imperial family.

This book is an easy read, there are no unnecessary descriptions of violence or cruelty. The sexual content is reduced to a minimum, but there are indications of the decadent world Rome was becoming at this period.
I would not qualify this story as a romance, although some parts of it are very romantic. It can be read as a standalone, but I would advise to read also the author’s first book “I am Livia”.

I recommend this excellent page-turner to all lovers of historical fiction !

I received an ARC, courtesy of publisher Lake Union Publishing, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

First Touch (First and Last #1) by Laurelin Paige

My 5 stars Review

Laurelin Paige has outdone herself with this book. The plot was breathtaking, suspenseful and mysterious. I had so many questions in my mind while reading this intriguing story. At the end of this first book, I felt I had been given some puzzle pieces, but they didn’t fit perfectly yet.
This author has a great talent for creating wonderful characters, totally flawed, but unforgettable.
Alayna and Hudson in the Fixed trilogy, Emily and Reeve in this series.

Emily Barnes/Wayburn has a rather naughty past. With her best friend Amber, she used men as sugar daddies to make a living. But after an horrific event, she decided to fend for herself and parted ways with Amber. Actress in a successful sitcom, she has gained her independency and is able to take care of her ailing mother. But she is caught up by her past, when she receives a call for help from Amber. After sending this message, her friend has simply vanished.

Emily’s investigation reveals that Amber was in contact with the infamous multibillionaire Reeve Sallis. She will need to get acquainted with the very private Reeve and seduce him to obtain the information she is looking for. But her attraction for this hot, controlling and uber alpha man is getting in the way of her plan, despite her loyalty to her long lost friend.
Reeve’s character is a mystery, is he responsible for Amber’s disappearance, is he really dangerous and connected to the mob ?

Laurelin Paige is a great storyteller. I enjoyed every second of this gripping, suspenseful, seductive and scorching hot story that has all the qualities to be an epic love tale, once the second part will be released and all questions will be answered. Highly recommended.

Tycoon by Joanna Shupe

Tycoon is the prequel novella to Joanna Shupe new series about a group of business tycoons, the Knickerbocker Club. It takes place in 1887, during the Gilded Age, a period that fascinates me. This was my first book by this author and I love how she gives life to her characters, despite the short format of this story.

Clara Dobson, a perfume shop girl, is on the run after witnessing a possible murder, involving a well-known politician and a corrupt police officer. Desperate for help and a place to hide, the lively and talkative Clara accosts Ted Harper on Grand Central platform. Unbeknown to her, Ted is not a simple businessman travelling for his employer, but the wealthy and powerful president of one of America’s largest banks.
Against his better judgment, Ted accepts to let Clara accompany him to St. Louis, where her family lives, in his private car.

Clara is a very endearing character, funny, vivacious and full of positive energy. She totally takes Ted by surprise. Usually, he is a man dealing in cold numbers and facts, but with her, it’s all about feelings and emotions he can’t control. What follows is the delightful beginning of a romance between two people who just seem perfect for each other.

Clara and Ted’s story takes place over a period of a few days. Everything happened rather quickly, due to this book short format. I wanted to know more about them ! I’m definitely looking forward to reading more in future books in this series. I give this book 4 delightful stars !

The expected release date for this book is February 23rd 2016.

I received an ARC, courtesy of publisher Kensington Books, in exchange for my honest review.

OMG ! Jessica Hawkins new book !

Title: Slip of the Tongue

Author: Jessica Hawkins

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cover Design: Okay Creations  

 Release Date: February 25, 2016

Blurb

Sadie Hunt isn’t perfect—but her husband is. Nathan Hunt has her coffee waiting every morning. He holds her hand until the last second. He worships the Manhattan sidewalk she walks on. Until one day, he just…stops. And Sadie finds herself in the last place she ever expected to be. Lonely in her marriage.

When rugged and sexy Finn Cohen moves into the apartment across the hall, he and Sadie share an immediate spark. Finn reveals dreams for a different life. Sadie wants to save her marriage. Their secrets should keep them apart, not ignite a blistering affair. But while Sadie’s marriage runs colder by the day, she and Finn burn hotter.

Her husband doesn’t want her anymore. The man next door would give up everything to have her.

ADD TO GOODREADS

Author Bio

Jessica Hawkins grew up between the purple mountains and under the endless sun of Palm Springs, California. She studied international business at Arizona State University and has also lived in Costa Rica and New York City. To her, the most intriguing fiction is forbidden, and that’s what you’ll find in her stories. Currently, she resides wherever her head lands, which is often the unexpected (but warm) keyboard of her trusty MacBook.

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