Mine

Hot damn. I didn't realize how badly I was in need of a really good romance until I read one. Then I remembered how much I loved these books and was so glad I bought it on my last "quick trip" to Target.

Mine - Katy Evans

In the international bestseller REAL, the unstoppable bad boy of the Underground fighting circuit finally met his match. Hired to keep him in prime condition, Brooke Dumas unleashed a primal desire in Remington "Riptide" Tate as vital as the air he breathes... and now he can't live without her.

Brooke never imagined she would end up with the man who is every woman's dream, but not all dreams end happily ever after, and just when they need each other the most, she is torn away from his side. Now with distance and darkness between them, the only thing left is to fight for the love of the man she calls MINE.

I will say right upfront that I apparently have a thing for books that are of unhealthy relationships and where the guy totally needs to be fixed. Or at least snuggled against your breasts. Maybe this says something deeper about me as a person, but I simply cannot help myself. Most of my favorite romances feature really dysfunctional relationships and I'm alright with it. 

One line out of this book sums up this entire series and it actually happens in this book on page 38: 

"We're the object of each other's hurt and each other's solace."

Seriously- how messed up is that? It's a whole lot of messed up but again, don't care because Remy is amazing. In the first book I left really not liking Brooke and I really thought she was an irrational baby. This book makes me like her. Mostly because she gets pregnant (calm down, it's not a spoiler),  but also because you can tell she really tried hard to not be an irrational baby. Except she did get a big whiny when Remy is out working and I'm going to chalk it up to hormones, but you came close Brooke. You came close to me not liking you. Too close. 

In this book this is Remy's shot to become the champion he was supposed to be but because Brooke's sister Nora is a moron we know he threw the championship in the first book. Well he's back but Scorpion is too and I'll be honest- the surprise he gives Brooke? Kind of genius. I won't lie and say I wasn't hoping for more drama from it, but this works too. 

Overall? I liked the book. I flew through it, I liked how this one ended FAR more than the last book. I am also happy that Brooke isn't trying to be a female fighter. I heard rumors online that's where this book was going then I saw this cover and I was pretty disappointed. But YAY, the author didn't go there. I will say, I am kind of annoyed at Brooke's jealousy. I mean, it's clear  you're his and he isn't straying. I don't know if this is because a lot of women in general now are grossly jealous but it's not attractive and I hate that so many female leads just get put into that category. You know, not all of us freak out over every little thing. Brooke gets upset when female fans scream things at Remy. Um, what did you think would happen? He's an incredibly good looking, totally ripped, fighter. Obviously this is going to happen. Calm down, dang. So aside from that, I really liked this book. 

I think the next in this series is called Rogue, but it's not a Remy/Brooke story, which is kind of exciting. I'm basically anxiously awaiting that one. Yum. 

Requested Surrender Book Blast

Book Blurb

She knows he’s dangerous for a woman like her.

He knows she’s perfect for a man like him.

From their first meeting, David Hollan is intrigued because Lacy Pembrook is

subconsciously hiding someone. Herself. And David wants to know why. He’s

patient at first. Willing to give her space, but when she breaks the rules

they’ve set between them, he’s ready to hold her accountable. One way or

another, he’s going to find the piece of her that’s yet to be uncovered. And

when he does? He intends to own it.

Given an ultimatum after she got caught coloring outsides the lines of their “trial”

relationship, Lacy decides to fall in with David’s plans. She’ll cancel her

trip and spend her vacation time at his house making up for her transgression.

No sweat, right? Wrong. What she doesn’t count on when she gets there is him

going full-out Dom on her. She quickly learns why they call him the quiet one.

He’s dead sexy, watchful and stern at the best of times, and now that he has

her all to himself, each of those things are magnified tenfold.

By the time Lacy realizes that he’s completely subjugated her—by way of an

emotional striptease—it’s too late. She’s bared her soul to him, so when he

requests her surrender she has no choice but to give it to him. Or does she?

Click here to find out how you

can pick up your copy!

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About the Author

Riley Murphy writes sexy, humorous and emotional romance, happy ending

guaranteed. An optimist, she believes life is awesome, people are complicated,

but in a good way, and we should never stop learning. Riley currently resides

in Florida with her

gorgeous husband. She has two wonderful kids and one very bossy English Bull

terrier she has dubbed 'The divine One'. When Riley's not working she enjoys

reading, oil painting and getting to the Sunday crossword puzzle before anyone

else does, so she can fill-in all the easy answers first. If Riley wasn't a

writer she'd be an international spy with top-level security so she could have

a peek at Area 51 and decide for herself if those green guys are for real.

Failing that she'd probably go with chicken sexer. Riley loves to hear from

readers.To learn more about her or her upcoming releases swing by her website

and say hello at: www.AuthorRileyMurphy.com or connect with her on twitter

@Riley__Murphy where she's always sharing her deep-dark secrets.

Her latest book is the erotic romance, Requested Surrender.

Visit her website at www.authorrileymurphy.com

or her blog at http://www.badboyscanbefun.com/blog/.

Connect & Socialize

with Riley!

TWITTER * FACEBOOK * GOODREADS

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When Sara Met Shirley, part 1

You know how sometimes the universe gives you a twin that is equally as awesome but comes from another mother? And how some people go their whole lives never finding that person? Yeah, I can't really relate to that because I finally got to hang out with Shirley! Shirley my super awesome blog friend for YEARS!

A few months ago we kind of rough planned out that she would come here for my birthday, it would be epic, and we would essentially be bad asses and hopefully not land in jail. We didn't land in jail, but we maybe saw a crime scene and a horror movie location, oogled a guy with hair plugs, ate cheese curds and drove for fucking hours to essentially see what could be on a top 10 list of worst cities of America.

All in a span of three god damn days!

So it starts on Thursday. I worked for a bit in the morning and then went to pick her up from the airport. Her husband had concerns that I might actually be a balding middle aged man with white Hanes briefs as my primary outfit. I think the fact I was late picking her up courtesy of every single traffic light, an accident on the bridge and a fucking train probably didn't help? But I got there and thankfully, she turned out to not be a balding middle aged man with white Hanes briefs as her primary outfit. Not that Matt expressed any concern, but at least 15 of my friends and my mother did. They kept texting to make sure that I was indeed alive and well and not gagged in the back of a rapist van.

But then, like a moron, I remembered I had forgotten to print out the tickets to a concert so I drove all the way back to work so we could do this. The plan was to see Kings of Leon in Minneapolis on Thursday, drive to Rockford, Illinois on Friday, do something there, then drive into Chicago on Saturday and see Kings of Leon again, then immediately after the concert drive eight hours on a virtually empty highway in the dark on almost no sleep.

At the time, this made perfect sense. We aren't old and we've got this.

So we drive to the cities and check into our hotel, which was super busy by the time we got there. I have been known to stay in questionable locations. I swear to god, no matter what the star rating is, the reviews or the pictures, if there is a shit room in the building I will always get it. I will just say from here on out, I apologize because I seriously am starting to think anyone who shares a room with me will suffer and it's my fault. I don't know what it is about me that attracts losers and filthy rooms but dammit.

Because what we though initially was mold all over the bathroom, which is bad enough, actually looks like blood. The picture isn't doing it justice because it really was a far more red/rust color. Like dried blood.

Anyways.

So we went out to eat at a restaurant pretty close to the concert venue that I usually go to, which also ended up being pretty busy. We also got a waitress who we are pretty certain was drunk. Our food was fine but when I asked for extra pickles she brought me a plate of pickles. Like a plate of pickle spears. It was really awkward and kind of weird. She also clearly wanted to be our friend. In hindsight, maybe she was actually hitting on us? Hmm..

So after that? We went to the Kings of Leon concert. Which, I don't know if you know this, but I'm a pretty huge fan. Like super huge. I will just say right now I am so disappointed that Caleb has done something to his head. He was clearly balding just a few years ago and suddenly he has hair. Which automatically makes me hate his model wife because why be judgey like that? You knew he was balding when you started dating. *sigh* Then Shirley completely busted any hopes I had to being a first wife to any one of them because Jared got married. *sigh* So now I have to be a home wrecker. Which, I don't want to be but I love me those men. I will say, I think Matthew has lost a little too much weight and needs to grow the hair out a bit because his ears look too big, but I'd over look it because if he can play guitar with his mouth, that can only mean good things, right?

After the concert, we drove back to the hotel and got some sleep. Friday was to be a big travel day driving from the cities to Rockford, which looked like a big dot on the map. We judge things by the size of dot and Rockford looked promising.

So the next day we started our drive. I think I impressed Shirley with Wisconsin's highway system being surrounded by adult superstores, firecracker superstores and cheese house places. Because dude- she's never had a cheese curd!!

We obviously stopped.

 And what a fucking disappointment to find that cheese house places don't see fried cheese curds? What in the mother hell is that?? We bought fudge instead. Mine turned out to be not edible because when I finally got home I discovered I left the back next to the heat vent in the back seat. It was a disgusting discovery. So because we couldn't get fried ones there, we stopped for lunch and she ordered some. Except she didn't understand the importance of the squeak and honestly, it's hard to explain what that is supposed to be.

But on to Rockford!

As it turns out, Rockford is a gigantic dump of a city. I don't even want to to call it a city, it's like a dirty big town, really. It's kind of disappointing. Also disappointing was the fact that as we got closer to our hotel it was becoming incredibly clear that the hotel likely wasn't going to be as described on the Internet.

BUT THEN!

Then I shouted out that there was a Beef-a-Roo!!!!

I still don't know what is in a Beef-a-Roo, and that I am admittedly nervous about eating here, but this one looked far classier than the one Matt and I saw in northern Michigan. So I promise you all now, the next time I see one, I'll eat something from there and document it all.

I'm going to tell you about the nightmare hotel and the second half of the trip tomorrow. But what you need to know for the closing of this post:

• Shirley + Sara 4 Eva
• Shirley = Team NeYo, Sara = Team Usher. We broke up on the Illinois border because of this. 
• But made up when we realized we pretty much are identical and like all of the same things because this would make kidnapping famous men a little easier. 
• Especially if we had a human trafficking van over a rapist van. 
• So long as we had enough quarters to drive on the roads because toll booths are everywhere. 
• Which doesn't feel as wrong as people from Arizona having to pay for air for their god damn tires. 
• Plus Shirley didn't die from the cold though she came close on her last day. 

More tomorrow. Swearsies. 

Eye cream and bras with extra lift? Welcome to 32.

Well. Today I am officially 32. I actually celebrated with an epic weekend out of town which I'll dutifully report on at some point this week, probably tomorrow. It was easily the best time I've had in a LONG time with one of my favorite blog friends ever. Today I worked and when I came home we went out to dinner and then had cake at home. I got a few presents, all of them awesome, and overall? It's a great birthday.

I just hate to be such a downer. I have always been that person that totally loved their birthday and believed in fully celebrating another year of life and thoughtfully looked forward to the next year and what it might bring. I am typically not that girl that obsesses over aging and I don't consider myself to be vain at all. I like to look pretty, but it doesn't take precedent over my day and I am totally that girl that will go makeup free into the world because sometimes I just don't care enough to make the effort.

But today?

Today felt different. Maybe it's because I've been sick for the majority of this year so far, maybe it's because I feel like I'm falling apart even though I'm not, I don't know. I just feel meh about my birthday. And that alone? Is kind of upsetting. I don't want to be meh about my birthday. I want to party hard. I want to have a tiara, cupcakes, balloons, the whole works. I feel like such a downer on my own birthday today.

I know in the large scheme of things, 32 is nothing. This is an age I'll look back on in 10 years and remember how good I had it. I won't lie though, knowing I now need eye cream for droopy eyelids and bras with a lot of extra lift because things are going a little more south than they should be at this age? Is really hard. And I hate to even say that because ugh, I'm not that girl. I have never been that girl to care really about what I look like and I don't know why all of a sudden I'm staring at myself in the mirror and noticing things changing. Again, years from now I'm going to watch to bitch slap my 32 year old self for being a whiny brat, I know this.

Even Matt commented about how I'm not really fired up about my birthday. Usually I demand there at least be a balloon involved. I wouldn't say no to crepe paper streamers and party blower things. My birthday also kind of creeped up on me this year and being sick I didn't really feel like planning anything out with local friends. I feel like maybe I'll plan a night out and whoever can come should and worst case scenario, at least my super close friends will come and I'll have a little night out. We'll see.

I also recognize that this might actually be a cross of daylight savings time, being exhausted, having a lot on my plate and the fact winter is dragging its ass and I feel like it won't ever end. I just want sunshine, grass, and capri pants. I don't feel like that is asking too much, right?? *sigh*

Sins of the Fallen

When seventeen-year-old Maximillion Taylor and his best friend, Jones go to a house party, he doesn't expect to get kidnapped—much less by a succubus—and she's not the only one on the hunt. Thrown into a world of angels and demons, where nothing and no one is what they seem, Max ventures to find his true identity and learn to fight the demons who pursue him. When his origin is revealed, it's a race against the clock for a battle that will determine whether he can protect the ones he loves or succumb to his true nature. Through lies, betrayal, love and pain, Max must prepare to face the demons before it is too late…

A perfect YA novel. Seriously. We have some romance, we have the paranormal aspect, we have a bizarre mystery to basically piece together, and it's not a long book. Win everywhere. 

Basically t his is the story of poor Max. Mas gets kidnapped by a really pretty girl who isn't a girl at all, all while his friend Jones watches on. He gets rescued by the girl of his dreams and it becomes the start of a nightmare. Max finds out his dad isn't just a human, super beings are essentially out to get him, his friend also isn't who he was assumed to be, and somehow, Max has fire throwing powers he hand no idea about 24 hours earlier. 

I can't really tell you what happens because this is book one in a series and everything else is essentially a spoiler in some way. I will tell you that the beginning is a little odd, but it definitely picks up once Max gets kidnapped and rescued and starts his training. I'm excited to see where Karina goes with the rest of this series. I definitely recommend this if you like YA with a paranormal twist. And fallen angels, come on. Who doesn't love that??

Throwback Thursday.1

I'm totally on the boat for this Throwback Thursday business. Mostly because as of late I've been sorting pictures on my computer and I found some that I totally forgot I even had.

But because my birthday is happening on the 10th, I decided maybe I should do one of me being adorable. That turned out to be really hard because man, I was super adorable as a little kid. So I picked a couple.

 I'm clearly like, two years old here? I don't have a weird thing on my face, it's something on the actual picture. But dammit- I'm so adorable

 My sailor outfit! I so loved this outfit! I remember it zipped down the front and I vividly remember zipping my stomach skin in it. That wasn't awesome but I totally loved this outfit.

 I kind of want to bite my own cheeks here.

Aw... me sleeping with my beloved Rainbow Dash pony and not far from me was my very best friend, Smurfette, who I affectionately call Furfy. I still have my Furfy and when it's a particularly rough patch in life, she's always with me.

Enjoy!

Orphan Train

I feel like I hardly have time to do fun reads right now, so while being sick I finished one so I'll share it with you now.

Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

One of my most favorite things is when I read a book that talks about something that really happened, and the book is so good it makes me want to learn more about it. This book does that for me. I honestly didn't think the "orphan trains" were real but they in fact really were real and it's both horrifying and fascinating. Essentially, if you were a child back in the early 1900's and your parents, for whatever reason, couldn't care for you, you would end up in an orphanage. The orphanages would run the orphan trains and load children up in them with very few belongings and almost nothing of personal value. Then they would parade the children out at different stops and people could just cherry pick a child. As long as you say you'll do right by them and give them a good life, you're good to go. Never mind these people could essentially use the children for slave labor on farms or do god knows what to them. Some children probably went to legitimate homes but most children didn't and would be bounced around, much like present day foster care. 

Which is where this story begins. It's the shared story (kind of) of Vivian, who was a rider of the orphan train and Molly, a foster kid who is misunderstood and hates the world. Molly attempts stealing a book from the library and as a consequence, she is to do 50 hours of a community service. Her boyfriend's mother is a housekeeper for Vivian and reluctantly agrees to introduce the two. Molly is to clean out Vivian's attic but what begins as a clean out project quickly morphs into a trip down memory lane. As Molly says at the end, it's more about Vivian seeing everything she's saved one last time. 

You hear far more about Vivian's experience on the train as well as the several families she is with before finally finding one that kept her until adulthood. You hear about her first love (which I so badly want to tell you how I feel about the ending of that but I can't because it's a huge spoiler- just know my heart broke and I cried), the daughter she had (and what happened to her), and the wrap up of her story essentially. But you also learn about Molly and you instantly feel terrible for her. You want to smack her foster parents and you just want to take her in yourself. 

I finished this book in a flash and it's one of those that I will likely read again. Christina Baker Kline is an absolutely wonderful writer and I am so glad I picked this one up on a whim. Absolutely does not disappoint, I cannot praise this book enough.