Review: Serena’s Plight (The Goddess of Ivy Trilogy, Book 1) by Carol Madison

Title: Serena’s Plight

Series: Goddess of Ivy, Book 1

Author: Carol Madison

Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, & Psychological Romance

Release Date: June 17, 2016

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Synopsis

Serena’s Plight is rich with passionate, detailed sex interspersed throughout an equally detailed drama of a young woman’s determination to survive all adversities and never give up her search for love.

Serena Loomis grew up poor, with an alcoholic mother and no father, but with Sam Everhart as her best friend. All she ever wanted was to become Serena Everhart, but Sam inexplicably began to push her away, and finally broke up with her. Abandoned by the only male she’d ever loved or felt loved by, they rarely spoke as Serena started going through boyfriends as fast as her mother, until she confronted a painful truth: Giving them everything wasn't enough. 

Now when Sam figures he can’t afford an Ivy League degree, he contacts Serena again with a plan to close his tuition gap by selling her considerable sexual favors to a few rich, trust-funded fraternity brothers, but when he starts to tell her about it, he changes his mind before he gets it out. Serena coerces him into divulging it after all, breaking her heart again. 

After a sleepless night, Serena considers her lack of plans or hope for her life, and the prospect that Sam’s elaborate scheme would give her a small fortune at the end of four years. She reluctantly decides she has no better option, and will pursue Sam’s idea as a necessary, but temporary compromise to secure her future. Serena has to pressure Sam into following through with it, but he does. Unfortunately for Sam’s renewed interest, she seems to thrive under the new circumstances. Unfortunately for Serena, although her work provides numerous pleasures, it’s a lot more difficult than she ever imagined, and getting worse, not better.

Serena's Plight is the first book in the Goddess of Ivy trilogy, a contemporary, erotic, and psychological romance.


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Review

Rating
5 out of 5 Hearts

Carol Madison is a new author to me. 

Serena's Plight is an unusual story  One that brought my emotions to the forefront, and gave me a run.

Wow! This is very interesting in its presentation. A coming of age and self discovery story that will challenge your emotions and thought processes in one more than one way. 

I kept asking myself, "Say What?" "No way!" "WTF?" and, "Why?"  

I didn't like Rob at first, he just rubbed me the wrong way. Serena is a complete mess, you may find yourself in a love/hate relationship with them. I sure did..

 I received an e-copy of this by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No renumeration was involved.

New Release: Lure of Obsession (Muse Chronicles, Book 1) by Lisa Kessler

Title: Lure of Obsession

Series: The Muse Chronicles, Book 1

Author: Lisa Kessler 

Genre: Mythology- Fantasy

Release Date: August 1, 2016

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"Lisa Kessler is an up and coming author to remember" - Sherrilyn Kenyon - #1 NYT Best Selling Author

The Prophecy - "Every generation the nine daughters of Zeus are reborn, and with their rebirth are also nine Guardians. They will be marked by the gods, and given gifts to protect his treasure. Their abilities will only be unlocked when they find their muse." 

Melanie Jacoby teaches English at Crystal City High School. She's also the reborn Muse of Tragic Poetry, but she isn't prepared for the tragedy of finding her roommate dead at the bottom of the stairs.

Nate Malone is the detective assigned to the case, but as the evidence points to an accidental fall, the visions begin. He sees a killer in a gold Kronos mask.

Mel is the next target. 

The Order of the Titans are eager to bring about the return of the Golden Age of Man, and they're prepared to kill the Muses to complete their mission. But Nate's desire to protect Mel is almost as strong as his hunger for her. 

And tragedy isn't part of his plan.

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Lisa Kessler is an Amazon Best Selling author of dark paranormal fiction. She's a two-time San Diego Book Award winner for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror and Best Published Romance. Her books have also won the PRISM award, the Award of Excellence, and the Award of Merit from the Holt Medallion.

Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.

When she's not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, and has performed with San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego.

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#99Cents Sales Blitz: Shadows Edge (A Night Prowler Novel Book 1)by J.T. Geissinger

Title: SHADOW'S EDGE

Author: J.T. Geissinger 

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Release Date: June 12, 2012

Make sure you grab your copy of this award winning read now at this low price!

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2013 winner FF&P's Prism Award for Published Authors—Best First Book

Deep within the primeval forests of southern England, a race of beautiful, savage shape-shifters lives hidden from the everyday world. Bound together by ancient bloodlines and a ruthless code of secrecy that punishes traitors with death, the Ikati send their leader Leander on a mission to capture one raised outside the tribe before she can expose their secret. When Leander tracks the unsuspecting outsider to Southern California, the hardened warrior is prepared for a fight—but not for the effect the sensual young beauty has on his heart.

Jenna spent her childhood in hiding, on the run from someone—or something—her parents refused to discuss. She trusts no one, not since her father’s mysterious disappearance, not since her mother’s sudden death, and definitely not since she began exhibiting strange, superhuman abilities. When handsome, enigmatic Leander appears, promising answers to the mysteries that shroud her past, she knows she shouldn’t trust him either. But their connection is undeniable, and as powerful as the enemy hell-bent on
destroying every one of their kind…

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He nuzzled his nose next to her throat and breathed in, a deep inhalation that sprouted goose bumps all over her skin. “I only want to protect you,” he whispered, his lips brushing her neck. “To keep you safe. Trust me, Jenna. Let me take care of you.”

That was his hand at the small of her back, fingers spread, pressing her body closer to his. That was her knee drawing up to allow the weight of his muscled leg to fit between hers, the hem of her dress slipping up, leaving her bare thigh exposed. Those were her fingers digging deep into the soft down coverlet as his lips moved over her collarbone, as he murmured words in a flowing language she didn’t understand. That was her hand stealing up to glide over his arm, his shoulder, touching the warm skin of his neck, sliding into his hair…

“Leander,” she protested, her voice caught between a whisper and a groan, already beginning to surrender herself to the flush of hot pleasure his hands brought, his lips brought. Her physical reaction to him was overwhelming: instinctual, pure and primal. Another few seconds and her body would take control of the decision making. “Please, I can’t think—”

But he cut her off with a kiss, deep and hot, and rolled half over her body so she was melting down into the soft, welcoming luxury of the mattress.

He pulled back, panting. “Don’t think,” he said, his voice husky. “Just feel.”

Then he kissed her again and she couldn’t help herself. She kissed him back.

Leander made a sound deep in his throat, a rumbling low growl, like an animal’s. He put his mouth against her ear and rasped out six words that made her heart clench into a fist.

“I want to be inside you.”

He slid his open palm down her bare thigh, curled his fingers over her hip, and rocked his pelvis against hers. She felt the length of his arousal, hard and insistent, and desire slammed into her with so much force she moaned. A hot, eager lust that demanded satisfaction swelled up in her and began to rage and burn.

He caught her wrist in one strong hand and lifted it over her head, pressing it down, captive, against the pillow. He lowered his head against the column of her neck and fastened his lips against her skin, licking, sucking, making her arch against him.

Then he bit her.

It wasn’t hard, nothing that would break the skin or leave a mark, but a native, untapped burst of energy flashed to life inside her under the fleeting sting of his bite. A blinding white current of feral awareness shot through her muscles and blood and nerves as if she were a pile of dry leaves touched by a torch and doused with accelerant…

…As if an animal sleeping just under her skin had awoken to barbarous, savage joy.

Jenna opened her eyes and stared hard at the ceiling, and felt something dark within her gather into storm.

J.T. Geissinger is an award winning and best-selling author of dark, sexy romance.

She is the recipient of the Prism Award for Best First Book, the Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and was a finalist for the prestigious RITA© Award from the Romance Writers of America. Her work has also finaled in the Booksellers’ Best, National Readers’ Choice, and Daphne du Maurier Awards.

She lives in California with her husband, on whom all her heroes are based.

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Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Enzo (Jinx Tattoos, Book 1) by Shyla Colt

 Title: Enzo

Series: Jinx Tattoos Book 1

Author: Shyla Colt

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: January 29, 2016

Neglected, abandoned by a heroin-addicted mother, and placed in foster care at ten, Enzo Jordan has learned one thing…love hurts. At thirty-five, he has a successful tattoo shop and his choice of women. The one-night stands are getting old, and the love he holds for his best friend, Aibhlinn is impossible to hide. When the attraction between them reaches a boiling point, he's forced to choose between facing his fears and walking away. 

Aibhlinn Leahy has been in love with her best friend for years. The Irish-born comic book artist has poured time, energy, and love into the wounded man. His choice to walk away breaks her heart but frees her to explore a new future.

Life is a cruel and amazing thing. An abandoned baby brings the two back together, and they’re forced to examine the love that has long existed between them. This is a story of pain, scars, and fear. We all have demons to battle. The real decision is who's in control…us or them?

People wondered about him and his best friend, Aibhlinn. They didn’t think a man, and a woman could be friends without jumping in the bed together. His theory was the exact opposite. Sex ruined things. It broke up lifelong relationships, made people paranoid, and upset the natural order you first had before romance entered the picture. No, his spitfire Irish lass with the piercing blue-green eyes and flowing Chesnutt mane would remain off limits forever. 

The very thought of her made him smile. Even on his darkest day, she never failed to bring him a little happiness. He walked to the front door of his house and locked the door behind Tracey. A quick glance at the clock told him he had bout thirty minutes to get his ass into gear. He walked back over the maple hardwood floor and into the bathroom. The white on white tiles and glass shower enclosure made the room appear more open and easy to get into and out of, which made the space tolerable.

Turning on the hot water, he sank onto the bench at the far end of the massive stall and let the steam gathering clear his pores and his muddled head. Lack of sleep and beer had him feeling sluggish. After a few minutes, he rose to his feet, and stepped under the spray quickly soaped down, and rinsed off. 

He was pulling on his plaid button up when the doorbell rang. A few moments later the lock turned. 

“You decent birthday boy?” Aibhlinn called with the slight light he’d grown to love. 

“Yeah, I’m coming out now,” Enzo said. 

He appeared in the doorway and smiled. Dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans that hugged her thick thighs, and large ass, she was mouthwatering. Off limits, didn't mean he couldn't admire her assets. An off the shoulder Pink Floyd sweater showed off tantalizing porcelain flesh. She had her hair pulled up into a messy bun that showed off her long, slender neck. 

“You ready to go?” she asked. 

“What? No breakfast?” He asked.

She rolled her eyes “Smart ass. We’ll be back for that later. If you don’t hurry, we’ll miss the sunrise.” 

He nodded his head and walked toward her, wrapping an arm around her waist as they hugged. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thanks for coming, Ave.”

“Where else would I be?” She whispered. 

Anywhere, with someone worthy of your time and affection. It was his deepest fear. That she’d enter a romantic relationship, and their friendship would go by the wayside. It was selfish. Wanting her to remain his number one girl. She deserved more. It worked for them now. They were both artists obsessed by the act of creating. 

The year were passing swiftly, and she’d gone from unknown to sought after in her career field. First come loves, and then comes marriage. He snarled, pushing the thought of the day she too would leave him far in the background of his brain.

“Come on, I’ll drive,” she said pulling him to the door. He allowed her to manipulate him. 

At five-foot-eleven, she still lacked the strength to move him if he resisted. Along with fucking, he liked to work out. It kept his head from getting overcrowded and allowed him a healthy way to work out his frustrations. Locking the door behind them, he followed her to the black SUV. She hit the Fob and unlocked the door. 

Enzo was at the driver’s side, opening her door before she could protest. He knew how to treat a woman. He wasn’t so fucked up that he felt a sick need to use and abuse them. His mother, the angel who adopted him and straightened his ass out, would skin him alive if he ever went that route. 

“Thanks, Enz,” she said climbing into her seat as he made his way to the passenger side. He leaned back against the seat and zoned out as she pulled out of his driveway and headed for their destination.

Fog hung in the air, creating a thin layer of white. The haze turned the massive structure to something mystical, or creepy, depending on how one looked at it. Bundled against the fall chill, they made their way from the car and into Ault Park, headed for the Pavilion. After the climb, his eyes drank in the frosted landscape. He shoved his hands in his pockets. 

This park held good and bad memories. His birth mother brought him here many times. Originally he thought it was because she was a good mother who loved the outdoors and knew he loved to be among the beauty the park offered. As he grew, he understood it was a public place to get her fix. No one thought twice of a man, a woman, and a child walking through the woods. 

He’d never forget the first time his brain registered the cash she gave Uncle Ian was for drugs. The tiny brown squares were heroin. They’d found her body here on his sixteenth birthday, needle still in her arm, eyes vacant, and body cold. She’d turned a day he already loathed into something even worse. He inhaled, embracing the chilly air that crept down his throat and into his chest. 

The ache meant he was alive. That he’d survived against the odds. Thinking of the days scrounging for food in garbage cans, stealing from the stores, and running drugs for dope boys to feed his starving gut he shuddered. She always saved the most fucked up shit for his birthday, like an anti-birthday gift. That last day she’d left and never returned was his twelfth birthday.

He bowed his head in solemn remembrance. All the bullshit made it hard for a guy to feel joy on the day he came into the world and landed in a pile of festering shit. But that’s not where you are now. He glanced over at the woman standing beside him as the sky yielded from an inky blue to a purple, and a dusky orange. The suns' rays turned everything golden and for that moment in time things were clean and new. The world was a hopeful place. The darkness was banished.

Shyla Colt grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, but has lived a variety of different places thanks to her wanderlust, interesting careers, and marriage to a United States Marine. She's always loved books and wrote her very first novel at the age of fifteen. She keeps a copy of her first submission letter on her desk for inspiration. 
After a lifetime of traveling, she settled down and knew her time had come to write. Diving into her new career like she does everything else, with enthusiasm, research and a lot of prayers, she had her first book published in June of 2011. As a full-time writer, stay at home mother, and wife, there's never a dull moment in her household.
She weaves her tales in spare moments and the evenings with a cup of coffee or tea at her side and the characters in her head for company. A self-professed rebel with a pen. Her goal is to diversify romance as she continues to genre hop, and offer up strong female characters.

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Cover Reveal: Absolute Power (Southern Justice, Book 1) by Cayce Poponea

 Title: Absolute Power

Series: Southern Justice Book 1

Author: Cayce Poponea

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: December 28, 2015

Dylan Morgan has it all; a prestigious career as a Detective for the city of Charleston, devilish good looks and a selection of girls whenever he chooses. Southern born and raised, he lives by the pearls his Granddaddy imparted to him. But when he questions his worth to the citizens of Charleston, his fears are realized when someone close to him is in danger. Does he follow the letter of the law as his position dictates, or does he follow his conscience, which will cause him to straddle a fine line? Can Dylan overcome the demons he creates for himself? Or will he toss everything away in a moment of reckoning?

Claire Stuart has fought hard her whole life not to fall into the same trap as her mother. She refuses to allow men to use her and toss her away. Needing to escape the hardship her family creates, she seeks education over acceptance and uproots herself from the backwoods of Kentucky to the charm of Charleston. She knows all about Dylan Morgan and his choice to bed every woman he comes across, yet she finds herself unable to listen to the warnings her mind and friends give her. Can Claire ignore Dylan’s past and allow herself to let someone in? Someone who could shatter her very soul.

Cayce Poponea currently resides in Southern Georgia, with her three dogs and wonderful husband. A true romantic at heart, she writes the type of fiction that she loves to read. When she isn't setting behind her computer screen, creating yet another heart stopping, page turning novel. You can find her enjoying down time with her family.

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