Talking About...TWINS!!!

What is it with TWINS???  Many of my favorite authors feature twin brothers quite frequently and for that I am eternally grateful.  What is it about this dynamic that makes twins so sizzling hot in their similarities as well as their uniqueness?  WHO gets your edge?  WHO do you favor?  And WHY, of course!

I could list several different options with the copious amount of twins I’ve read, but allow me to start off with four remarkable sets of twins:

             1.  Gabriel and Lucian Daratrazanoff, Carpathian series by Christine Feehan:  Ancient warriors battle-weary not only from kicking vampire-ass, but from nearly annihilating each other!  Committed to executing each other lest the other turns into an evil creature of the night, theirs is a special bond that transcends the embryonic sac they shared.  Too graphic?  My bad.  They are powerful, gorgeous, intelligent and charming.  In this particular case, I give the nod to Gabriel because of his complimentary partner, Francesca.  She also is an ancient Carpathian and a brilliant physician in her own right.  Jaxon, Lucian’s Lifemate, is fine; she has to be to capture the heart of such a man, but she’s also got a chip on her shoulder and riles up the Carpathian women about fighting alongside their mates.  Boo.                GABRIEL

2.   Aidan and Julian Savage, Carpathian series by Christine Feehan:  Younger generation Carpathian warriors skilled and competent to destroy offending vampire; these brothers also served under supreme healer and island unto himself, Gregori Daratrazanoff.  That mention alone warrants accolades, but I digress…See how fun this is?!  Julian is more rambunctious, but tenacity is he.  Fearing he has been infected by vampire blood that is converting him, Julian chooses to put distance between himself and his beloved twin to avoid any sort of contamination.  Awww….  Aidan is scrupulous and focused and a bit more romantic, IMO.  If I was to use the same qualifiers as I did with the Dara twins, then Julian’s Lifemate, Desari, would give him the edge.  Not so much in this case.  Yes, I just changed my own process, but it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to! :D  Alexandria, Aidan’s LM, is such a nightmare, my vote leans toward Aidan.                                                  AIDAN

3.  Jack…**reverent pause** and Ken Norton, Ghostwalker series by Christine Feehan.  Hey…starting to see a pattern here!  These men are AMAZING.  Raised by a horrible father, Jack and Ken have always taken care of each other.  They work together in the same unit, they’ve communicated telepathically since birth; no one gets in between these fiercely loyal brothers.  That is until their wives, of course.  I, unapologetically, choose Jack.  He is a man’s man.  Ken, although carrying virulent demons of his own, is at least charming and that affability is disarming; he can converse with ease.  Jack is stoic and always en garde (he is the older twin!).  He lacks the social graces Ken utilizes, but that calm before the storm exterior that Jack exudes…well, it’s enough to steal my breath.  In this particular example, both wives are perfect counterparts to these magnificent men.  Still…                                                                           JACK

    4.  Drustan and Dageus MacKeltar, Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning:  Proof that it isn’t only Ms. Feehan who’s made twins so spectacular.  These Scotts are to die for!  Similar to the Savage twins, these brothers are also separated, but by a spell, time and shame [thank you, Lisa!].  When they’re reunited by time travel, well…the reunion and subsequent camaraderie is a thing of beauty.  While fairly matched, Drustan manages the knowledge of his family’s Druid magic and duties while Dageus defends them physically and experiments at his own personal expense.  As romantic as Drustan is, listening patiently to Gwen from one side of the garderobe while she recounted their history from the other, safer side (he was pretty upset at the time), Dageus gets MY advantage.  Splendidly alpha, Dageus is driven and passionate and makes me [fine, Chloe!] swoon just a little bit longer…a little bit deeper?  I just love him, ok?!                                      DAGEUS                                                                                                            

Did I manage to motivate you into logging in and disclosing your own choices??  I certainly hope so!  Please share your own opinions and preferences.  Tell me who YOUR choices are and please, don’t stop at the “same sac” biological gestation.  I would be negligent in my post if I did not include equally sensational siblings, Zarek and Valerius from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series (Zarek, every time!); the mouth-watering McCabe brothers from Maya Banks’ Highlander series (Alaric without a doubt!); what about the phenomenal Prakenskii brothers from Christine Feehan’s Drake Sisters series.  Hell, what about the Peltier quadruplets?!  I’m taking down names, ladies…list away!!!  

Yikes…I just remembered a few more…how could I overlook THEM?   

Carmen        

Beneath a Rising Moon, A Review

Beneath a Rising Moon was my first Keri Arthur book and I found myself enchanted. At first I did not want to use enchanted as to me it implies a bit more of a mystical image than I want. This book has an earthier, darker feel to it and yet.. I was drawn in and found myself falling for the characters of Ripple Creek.

Neva Grant is the twin sister of the Ranger Savannah, the lead investigator in a series of killings in Ripple Creek. When Savannah herself is attacked, Neva takes things into her own hands. Never a good thing.. *grins* Neva has decided to infiltrate the local Sinclair pack's monthly orgy (for lack of a better term) to see if she can find the killer on her own. Once there she finds herself drawn not only by the werewolf's natural instincts to the moon, but to Duncan Sinclair, the baddest of the bad.

Duncan Sinclair has been called back to the pack to help investigate the killings that are being left at his packs door. Convinced that they will get no assistance from the local rangers, Duncan is committed to helping save his pack. While he has left his wild ways behind once he returns he is still a single wolf and the call of the sumptuous Neva pulls at him. Discovering that Neva had an alternative motive and not sure what it is, he is determined to keep her close at hand for more than the pull of the moon. Duncan demands Neva's attention and almost destroys her relationships with her family as well as her reputation. Convinced she is working for the killer in some way his manipulations lack all finesse. Sadly once he realizes that Neva is not the guilty party he thinks she is, things are in pretty sorry shape.

With all hopes of a relationship all but shattered Duncan and Neva still must work together to find the killer. As well as trying to find mutual ground in a relationship that is all but broken. They must fight his past, her family and those that just want them dead.. This book has plenty of sultry moments, an earthy sensuous series and I can not wait until the reprint of the next book in this series..

Shauni

This review is based on the ARC of Beneath a Rising Moon provided by netgalley 

Was It As Good... The Last Song

****Warning! This is for discussion purposes and does contain spoilers for both the book and the movie***

I have been going back and forth on this book to movie adaptation discussion for a while now. One reason is that people LOVE Nicholas Sparks and usually I am not one of those people. The other reason is that sometimes I think that a good movie can get lost in the "names" that are bigger than the movie itself. But I really want to chat about this book/movie. So I am taking a leap...

 

Like I said before, Nickolas Sparks is not one of my favorite authors out there. Yet, I still read his books! Crazy right? I do have favorites of his and this book, The Last Song, is by far one of my favorites. It might be one of my favorite books, period.

 

This is a story about a young girl who just graduated from high school and her mom is making her and her little brother spend the summer with her estranged father on the coast in Georgia. The girl, Roni, hates her father and does everything she can to let him know it. During the summer Roni makes a friend, gets into BIG trouble, meets a boy, falls in love, learns to love her father again and has to face great loss. It is hands down a wonderful book.

 

Does the movie do the book justice? Heck no! I don't think it does at all. One of the main things in the book that is discovered is that Roni has always believed that her father was the reason for her parents divorce. But, it was her mother who had an affair and she just let her kids believe that it was their father who committed adultery. Also, Roni used to be an amazing pianist, it was something that her and her father did together, it was her entire life. I feel like in the movie they never got that point across. The book/movie is called The LAST Song.

 

It is called that because she finds out that her father is dying (this is Nicholas Sparks after all)  and she is trying to let him know how much she loves him and how sorry she is for blaming him all of these years. The only gift she can think of to give him is to finish the song that they were working on for years when she was younger before her parents split up. So she gives him his "last song" as a gift. I am getting all teary thinking about it! That part in the book is sooooooo emotional! I had to keep stopping because I was crying so hard. It was one of the sweetest moments that I had ever read in a book. In the movie it just didn't seem...genuine. We never really got to see Roni changing like we do in the book. The movie just showed her as a brat that you wanted to throttle who just changes her tune once she finds out her dad is dying. While in the book that was not the case. They had already started healing and becoming a family again long before the truth of his sickness ever came out.

 

The young romance in the book is also slow going and something that is very sweet to read about. The movie almost just...made them like each other from the beginning and it just felt too Hollywood to me. Look, I know that the movie is never like the book, but I really feel like they just missed the mark entirely on this movie. The essence of the book was not there and the whole point to the story was lacking. It just felt like they knew it would make money because of the actors and because Nicholas Sparks brings big bucks to the box office no matter what.

 

Read the book, wait for the movie to come on TV. But read the book! It really is so good.

 

 

Lisa :) 

Angel Burn, A Review

This book was given to me for free from Barnes and Noble with a purchase of a Nook. So naturally I put off reading it for a while. I figured that if they were giving it away that it probably wasn't worth my time. Man, oh, man was I so wrong! Angel Burn is a game-changer! It takes all of the "rules" and things that we "know" about Angels and throws them out the window!

Alex has spent most of his life hunting Angles. That's right, HUNTING them. Angels are feeding off of human essence and sucking the life force out of them. Although they don't kill the human, they do leave a mark on the human. Sometimes it is brain damage, sometimes it is cancer, sometimes it is MS... etc. This is known as Angel Burn. The worst part? The humans only see the Angels as good beings and can never see them for the vultures they are. The human spends the rest of its life in a dream-like state of worshiping the Angels. Something has happened in the Angels natural realm because the attacks on humans has more than tripled in the past two years.

Alex is employed by the CIA working on Project Angel. He is an AK (angel killer) and the best one on the planet. He lives his life going from city to city killing Angels that have been spotted. When the text comes in of the location of the Angel, Alex leaves and asks no questions. When he gets the text to go to NY, he has no clue he whole life is about to be turned upside down.

Willow Fields has been different her whole life. Not only does she like, no love to work on cars, but she is also psychic. Sometimes it is just by being near someone and sometimes it requires touching someone. It is her psychic ability that brought a girl from her school to her house one day asking for a reading, that changed Willow's life forever. This girl has seen an Angel and Willow knows that he is not a good being. Willow tries to warn her that her life is in danger if she were to keep seeing the Angel but the girl will hear nothing of it.

That night, Willow gets a visitor, the Angel she saw in the girls mind. The Angel tries to attack Willow, but once he touches her he flinches away, with fear in his eyes.

Alex enters the address of the Angel he is supposed to take out. He learns quickly that something isn't right. This thing has an aura of a human mixed with an aura of an Angel. Angel's aren't supposed to be able to breed with humans. It is thought of to be impossible. Yet this being leaves no other explanation. But why would the Angels want her taken out? What is so special about her? From the moment he sees Willow, Alex knows that he will never be able to kill her.

Willow wants to try to warn the girl from her school one more time and follows her to the Church of the Angels. Upon arriving Willow gets a feeling of foreboding so great that she can hardly breath. When the girl sees her she shouts to the rafters that Willow is against the Angels and she must be stopped. The entire congregation is against her in seconds and so are the Angels.

Now Willow must trust this guy who just happened to be at the church when everyone turned into an angry mob. He says he can protect her from the Angels and that she is *gulp*, half-Angel. The only thing that Willow knows for sure is that those people did hate her and wanted her dead. The only problem is that it seems like Alex hates her too. Why did she ever do that reading?

Alex knows that Willow may be the key to finally getting the jump on this war. The Angels want her dead badly, which means that they fear her. Alex must get over his prejudice of her Angel half and figure out what is so special about her. But the more that Alex is around Willow, the more he finds that her Angel half may not be so bad. In fact, Alex feels like an idiot when he is around her. He can't think straight. All he can think about is running his hands through Willows beautiful long hair. Ugh! What is wrong with him?

Willow has to learn a lot about herself while on the run. The time has come for her to come to terms with why she has been different her whole life. Why her mother got sick when she was so young and why she lost her mind. Angel Burn. Her mother was a victim and Willow was the result. Because of that reason alone, Willow wants to figure out a way to stop the Angels once and for all. No matter the cost to her.

L.A. Weatherly, sets up this story about Alex and Willow flawlessly in this first book to her Angel Book Trilogy.  The writing flows perfectly and the transitions are smooth. Willow could be a girl that you went to school with or she could be your neighbor. She writes these characters as if she grew up with them. I am telling you this story is so original that it will blow you away. In this world that she created there is no stone left unturned. She has thought of everything!

A Must Read Indeed!
          Happy Reading!

                                        Even Angels aren't perfect,
                                                                                Lisa :)



Wicked Nights, A Review

Wicked Nights by Nina Bangs **impossible not to grin** was an absolute delight!  I am convinced I first heard of her on a Twilight Fan-Fiction website (R-rated Edward Cullen is even MORE swoon-worthy), but I’m 41 and suffer from Dory syndrome aka short-term memory loss.  But who really cares?  This was book was outstanding…and I found it at the Dollar Store!!!  SCORE!!!

Eric McNair, an 800 year old vampire along with his brothers, Connall and Brynn, operate the Castle of Dark Dreams, an adult theme park that caters to erotic role-playing and satisfying every woman’s wildest fantasy.

Late-night radio talk-show host, Donna Nolan, has agreed to broadcast her highly popular, Donna Till Dawn, from the theme park in order to verify the credibility of a woman’s phone call; claiming a pod of non-human seducers (of supernatural variety) visited her and delivered sensual gratification of epic proportions.  Unconvinced, Donna follows the trail which leads to the headquarters at, you guessed it:  The Castle of Dark Dreams.

Donna’s skepticism of the paranormal makes her the perfect subject to test the validity of the claim.  Unable to select the fantasy of her choice, Donna is rushed into the role of peasant girl seduced by the vampire, “Eric the Evil”.

“Come to me, woman.”  His voice was a husky temptation……a compulsion.”

No!  She wouldn’t let this – whatever this was – happen.  Donna pictured herself, always the queen of calm and cool, admitting to her audience that a silly role-playing fantasy had scared her witless.  She stopped walking.

“You resisted my call.  That intrigues me.  But you willna escape.”

A VAMPIRE HIGHLANDER…be still my heart!!!  Donna nearly swoons (she’s made of sterner stuff than me), but is still reluctant to believe it…Eric…is the real deal.

Originally focused on getting Donna in and out…of the Castle, people!!! :D…to avoid loons and obsessive admirers **Raising hand:  Party of 1!** Donna is thrust into the middle of a centuries-old feud between enemy vampire clans.  When Taurin comes to exact his revenge upon Eric, he reveals his true vampire nature and “outs” Eric as well.  To say that Donna didn’t take that knowledge well, well…Ms. Bangs delivers a bang there as well.  Donna cringes at his touch and you ache for Eric.  He knew to expect this reaction of horror; what he didn’t anticipate was the soul-crush he felt. 

An immensely entertaining supporting cast of characters adds another element of charm to the book.  Although brief, the camaraderie between Eric

and his brothers, Connal and Brynn, is better than it needed to be.  Does that make sense?  Each brother comes with his particular secrets and is equally deserving of his own book.  Holgarth is the resident wizard and cantankerous overseer of the Castle.  His biting sarcasm and confidence make him one of those characters you hate to love.  I adored him! 

A simultaneous story involving Eric and Donna and the “perfect sexual setup” brings the additional two female characters to a head.  Sparkle Stardust, an immortal who considers herself the “sexual happiness facilitator” and Asima, the immortal shifter currently in the form of a blue point Siamese cat, tangle in snarky exchanges clearly indicating a complicated past and present-day animosity.  While working independently, their goals are equal:  Make Donna irresistible to Eric.    

What more can I say to pique your interest?  Ms. Bangs delivers on ALL levels.  Eric is an alpha vampire who commands attention and eternal loyalty.  Donna is the stubborn woman who challenges him and inspires hope for a future.  I have discovered a new author whom I intend to pursue actively (yes, I’ve already signed up for her newsletter and am following her on Twitter!).  I do not want to miss the romance, seduction and swoons she has in store for us.

And to think Donna almost chose the pirate fantasy!

Carmen

Nightshifted, A Review

A shadow fell on me, from behind Asher. "Edie" My heart thrilled inside my chest. I should know--I could have reached in to feel it, if I'd wanted to. "Ti?" He stepped out and was revealed. My boyfriend was a patchwork quilt of a human being, but that didn't matter in the least. "You're alive--" Lips that were and were not his smiled. "Not technically."
~~ Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander







If you have been missing Buffy the Vampire Slayer as much as I have and feel that there has not been anything since that has been able to give you that "Buffy fix," then look no further! No, Edie Spence is not a super strong girl who is picked by some weird being to save the world, but she does know how to handle her own in the supernatural world.

Edie Spence had finally graduated from nursing school and landed a sweet job at a private hospital. All of those student loans that she acquired were finally going to get paid off and she could finally start buying nice things. All of that changed when her brother almost died, again, from a drug overdose. He has never been able to kick his heroine addiction and he really never has wanted to.

When an allusive man offered to get her brother clean once and for all, Edie felt she owed it to her brother to give him one more chance at a good clean life. That is how she ended up at County Hospital working for almost nothing on the Y4 floor, on the night shift. What's Y4? Well that is where all of the creatures that you have ever feared went bump in the night go to if they are in need of medical attention. As long as Edie works there her brother will be clean. Oh man the things she has done for her brother.

While working on the night shift, Edie has a patient who is a vampire daytimer, human servants who will one day be turned into vampires themselves, who was badly beaten almost to death. A mistake made on Edie's part leaves the man able to pull out his breathing tube. Before Edie can right her mistake, the man dies saying one thing,"Save Anna."

From that moment on, it is a whirlwind of adventure. Edie feels that she must grant this last mans wish to save Anna, after all she did kill him. Accidentally. Now the race is on, Edie is being convicted of murder by the vampires and has only a week to prove her innocence. With the help of a zombie, who really is handsome despite the scars and is incredibly sweet  and some weres she maybe able to save her life. Let's not forget about her vampire lawyer and her shape-shifter *cough* friend and the Dragon that almost kills her!

Nightshifted is the first book in the Edie Spence Trilogy by Cassie Alexander. Alexander has created this wonderful world of paranormal that we don't usually get to see. Edie Spence is so wonderfully human in a world of ghost CD players, vampires, zombies, weres, shifters and crappy pay checks. She never makes any excuses and just goes with the flow. Read this book and get your "fix" that I know you are missing. You will be swooning (I promise), yelling and laughing all at the same time.
               
A Must Read Indeed! 
                                  Happy Reading!

Maybe I don't hate Zombies after all,
                                                            Lisa   :)

Dream Lake, A Review

Dream Lake is officially book number two in Lisa Kleypas' Friday Harbor Series although I consider Christmas at Friday Harbor as book one so this would in all actuality be Book 3. This particular series is full of warm fuzzies and has just a sweet touch of what I am going to call the woo woo. It isn't PNR by any means and most certainly remains a contemporary romance but it has a touch of the what if or as my son would say the "hey it could happen" to it.

Alex Nolan, the bad boy of the Nolans.. last child and left alone to grow up with alcoholic parents. After his siblings understandably baled he was left to deal with the dregs. He was raised to be an alcoholic and he went at it full tilt. His life was pretty much going to hell in a hand basket. Until an unexpected encounter with a ghost changed everything (the question remains can one have expected encounters?) When this unnamed entity attached himself to Alex mainly because
1. Alex could actually see him and
2. He could actually leave the house and go where ever Alex went.
 Alex was more than a little disturbed and seriously wondering if it was just another drunken hallucination. Through a series of island and family ties Alex was asked to renovate a cottage for a woman and her ailing grandmother.

Zoe Hoffman, abandoned as a child by her mother then later her father and left to live with an adoring grandmother she knew love but still had those lovely issues of wondering what the heck was wrong with her. When her grandma has a series of strokes and the onslaught of two types of dementia, Zoe knows she could no more abandon her than her grandma could have abandoned Zoe. Thanks to her cousin Justine (who I hear gets the next book) Zoe was able to renovate the family cottage by the lake and bring her grandma home.

Through the renovation Zoe and Alex sizzle in that slow sensual way we all dream of. That first kiss, that subtle touch, that feeling in the pit of your stomach. At first Zoe questions it because she is so not into Mr Right Now. And Alex, well he was sure the best he could do was stay far away that he would destroy Zoe or at the very least hurt her deeply. But they couldn't stay away. Then to find out the connection of Alex's mysterious ghost..

This was a wonderfully sweet story of the promise of love. Of taking a chance on love and on holding on no matter what. It is a wonderful read, especially when you get so caught up in the PNR factor. No romantic suspense, no do or die, no evil demons.. just two people connecting.. Sometimes this is just what we need.

Shauni

Time UnTime, A Review

Time UnTime is the latest book in Sherrilyn Kenyon's world of the Dark Hunters (for those of you who didn't know) As with all Kenyon books this one was much anticipated and once again Sherrie doesn't fail us. Time UnTime had a seriously different feel to it. It wasn't that quirky, crazy, silly dialog that Sherrie is famous for. It didn't have those sensual scenes that many of us blush over (hello, Talon on the bar).. It even lacks Daimons.. and yet it is a wonderful addition to the Dark Hunters.

I have not read a single book of Sherrie's that I didn't love.. I have laughed at the insanity, wondered who the Alexion was going to be, cried when Nicky, well became "more". I have cringed at Sherrie's ability to describe a tortured past but never before has a Kenyon story entered my dreams and remind me of what was.. and what wasn't.

Ren (short for Renegade which btw, had my first daughter have been a boy his name would have been Renegade.. so for that alone I had to love him) was the son of a Greek Goddess and a Mayan Chieftain.. and nursed by a demon. Talk about family issues.. Resented by his father he is demeaned and debased by family and tribe. Leaving him with absolutely no self worth and a desperate need for love. Not knowing what real love was he fell for a woman who had an ulterior motive and lead him down the path that almost destroyed the world. After finding redemption he was betrayed by his brother yet again and killed. Artemis finds him and offers him her Dark Hunter Deal.. an unusual event for someone from South America and the Mayan Pantheon..He is almost as old as Ash and believe it or not, Ash was surprised when they finally met.. Once Ren accepts his Dark Hunter status he spends the next 11,000 years working to protect the world.

Kateri Avani the last of her bloodline on her Mother's side and the cousin to Sunshine Runningwolf. Although, Sunshine is her cousin she is not the granddauther of a goddess.. and as completely clueless to the "other" things that reside beside her. Kateri is the one person who has been ordained to reset time before it runs out and the Demons are released. But once she starts learning about who she is and what she has to do her amazing belief in the good of mankind shines through. She steps up well she accepts what she must do after she is dragged into everything.

There is just so much going on in this book it is amazing. This is not a transitional book although I do believe it is part of a dualogy with Retribution as part of story within a story of the Dark Hunters. As I said in the beginning this is not your typical Sherrie story. It is filled with Cherokee and Mayan Mythos.. a tip of the hat to 2012. We see Ash and Sundown and Sasha and Talon and Rain Runningwolf and Urian.. we don't see any of the women though.. rather interesting. Oh and we see Nicky and really learn something new about him.

*****************semi spoiler alert********************

For those of you who are mad at Nicky... you might find your opinions changed.. Nicky and Ash have a conversation that all but brought me to tears..

*************end of semi spoiler alert*******************

Although this book is way different to Sherrie's usual it has a definite appeal and I believe anyone who loves Kenyon will love this book.. and for those of you who have never read her.. you will find it an amazing read! Enjoy my friends

Shauni

Sneak Peak, Time UnTime

Are you all getting excited? Time UnTime is out TOMORROW!! Here's one of the commercials that you might be seeing..

Leaving Paradise, A Review

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Maggie." "Yes. . . I do," I say, panicking. I hear him let out a breath, then he steps back. But he doesn't leave, he just stares at me strangely. "We used to be friends." "That was a long time ago," I say. "Before you hit me." "It was an accident. And I paid my debt to society." It's a totally surreal moment, and I don't want it to last longer than it has to.While my insides shake from nervousness, I say, "You may have paid your debt to society, but what about your debt to me?"  

Tennis was Maggie's ticket out of Paradise, Ohio. She was good enough to get a scholarship for college and say goodbye to the small town she had spent her whole life in. All of her dreams were shattered on that dreadful night she finally got the courage to tell the boy she had watched from a distance, how she really felt about him. After being horribly shut down she was hit by a car. Her leg left a mangled mess, never to be the same.

She walks with a limp and has not even touched a tennis racket since. The worst thing about all of this mess? She was hit by her best friends brother who she has grown up with her entire life. He was drunk and in one moment he took her entire future from her. He went away to a juvenile detention center for a year. Now he is out early and she can't leave Paradise soon enough.

Caleb was out. He spent an entire year of his life locked up with a sorted group of guys. That year changed him. Now he is out and has no clue what to do. It seems like the best course is to just try to go back to the way things were before he left. Caleb did his time, now it is time to get his life back. The only problem? He lives right next door to Maggie. She is everywhere in Paradise and every time he sees her he is reminded of that night.

Caleb soon sees that things are not so easily put back together. His family is falling apart. His mom drinks all the time. His dad is almost always AWOL. His sister has turned into a total freak and she isn't even friends with Maggie anymore! That pisses him off more than anything. You really can never go home again.

A moment of Fate has both Maggie and Caleb working in the same place. Maggie needs the money to save up and get out of Paradise and to finally get away from Caleb. Caleb needs the job for his community service hours. It would seem that no matter how far these two try to stay away from each other that Fate has other ideas.

This is a story about overcoming crappy situations and growing up. Caleb and Maggie have so many things to learn about each other and have this huge shadow in their way. They both need to learn forgiveness and moving on. Watching Caleb and Maggie grow up and see things from each others point of view is...life-changing.

Simone Elkeles gives us these two wonderfully flawed characters in the middle of their worst times and has us routing for them both. You want them to forgive each other. You want them to move on, not because they are annoying but because you want them to grow and be better versions of themselves. Leaving Paradise, is the first book in her two book series. Buy both books because this one leaves you on a cliff-hanger!

Read this book and fall in love in Paradise. A Must Read Indeed!

Happy Reading!

Truly believing that love can conquer all,

    Lisa :)

The Mating, A Review

"She lay beside him, staring blankly at the ceiling. The deed was done. They were mated. It didn't matter that she had no love for him nor he for her. Political alliances were more important than feelings, or so she had been told. That fact was cold comfort right now as her heart broke within her." --Nicky Charles, The Mating--

The Mating, by Nicky Charles, is the first book in the Laws of the Lycans series. We first meet Elise and Kane right after they have mated for a political alliance. Elise came home that very same day from running with her boyfriend, that's right! I said boyfriend, to find out that her Alpha (AKA her father!), has promised her off to a new Alpha of a pack not too far from where she has lived her whole life. Kane is a larger than life man who Elise knows nothing about. The only thing that Elise knows for sure is that she must either marry Kane or run away and be a loan wolf. She picks to lesser of two evils and agrees to the marriage.

Now Elise finds her self as the Alphas mate in a new place with no one she knows. Her new pack seems nice enough and they seem to be genuinely happy that Kane has found a mate. Elise soon finds out that the pack is in more trouble than she could have ever imagined. People are breaking onto their land and hunting wolves! Oil is spilling in the oddest places and ruining a lot of the wildlife area. Clean up costs are digging into the packs resources and a big time oil company are pushing Kane to just give up and sell the land. Plus Elise is pretty sure someone is trying to kill her.

Let's not forget about the evil she-devil Marla, who clearly wants Kane for herself and seems to be doing anything in her power to drive a wedge between Elise and Kane. Not that Elise has feelings for Kane...right? She would be upset with anyone messing with any relationship she has. But Elise has noticed that she has been thinking about Kane more and more. Not just the physical relationship that they share, although that is mind altering. Elise likes finding ways to make Kane smile and help take some of his stress away. Could she be falling for the man who took her away from the only home and family she has ever known? Could Kane ever have feelings for her too?

This book is action packed and full of romance! This book is almost 1,000 pages long and still I wanted more! I never got bored and wondered when it was going to end. Watching the relationship between Kane and Elise grow is so sweet. Sometimes I felt like I should look away because the romance seemed so private between the couple. Charles has created this wonderful world of Lycans that is unlike any I have read before. The way she describes the pack and the laws is refreshing. Oh and did I mention that all of her books are FREE downloads! That's right! If you go to a site and they are charging you for them, don't! She even says on her site that she doesn't get the money for it.

Try out this world and you will not be disappointed! A Must Read Indeed!

Lycan Lover,
   Lisa  :)