Pack Challenge (#1) Shelly Laurenston

What's an Alpha Male to do when he meets the Alpha Female of his dreams? Step one, hide all sharp objects. All Zach Sheridan ever wanted was to become Alpha Male of his Pack and be left alone. What he definitely didn't need in his life was some needy female demanding his attention. What he never saw coming was the vicious, scarred female who not only demanded his attention but knew exactly how to get it. Sara Morrighan knew this was the best she could expect from her life. Good friends. A nice place to live. And a safe job. But when Zach rode into her small Texas town with his motorcycle club, Sara knew she wanted more. She knew she wanted him. But after one sexy encounter with her dream biker, everything is starting to change. Her body. Her strength. That new thing she's doing with the snarling. Even her best friends are starting to wonder what's going on with her. But this is only the beginning. Sara's about to find out her life was meant for so much more. And Zach's about to find true love with the one woman who makes him absolutely insane. Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and strong violence.

Ren's Review:

This is the first book of Shelly Laurenston that I've read...

Zacharias Sherridan or Zach first meet her in pub. And surprised when she kisses him. Then he knows that she is drunk but Zach seems to not be able to forgot her. This lucky girl is Sara Morrighan, raised with her crazy grandma. Finally Sara is free from her, after she dies. Sara then lived at Marrec's place, a guy that act as her father, and her two crazy friends, the big mouth Miki and the sophisticated latina Angelina.

One day, some bikers group stop at Marrec' s place, and Sara realized someone is watching her. Yep, that "someone" is Zach, who she kissed when she drunk with tequila. Miki and Angelina sees him as "boyfriend material" for Sara, while Sara avoids him. Little does Sara know, Zach try to avoid her too, but can't help himself, since Sara "calls" to his beast...

Then we know, Zach is wolf shape shifter, and his bikers group is pack of wolf-shifter called Magnus Pack. Zach want to be alpha, since the previous Alpha, Yates controlled by his mate Casey, and Zach hate about that. Yates ask him to "watching and babysitting" Sara, since Sara is wolf shifter too, but she never realized. Sara has problem, her leg had a big wound and she limp. She always suffer for 20 years, and don't have confidence like her 2 friends. With help of Zach, finally Sara find her strength and know her true identity.. As an Alpha Female of The Pack.. But she must face the old enemy, enemy that killed her parents and maked her  suffer for 20 years...


Reading this book made my ears (and eyes) burn, literally.. So many curse and swear words, it made me cringe x_x..

The friendship between Sara, Miki and Angelina is harsh and crazy, but they understand each other. We know about Sara's pain, and how she can't walk properly for 20 years. And then when Zach makes her feel better, we will see the other side of Sara. From meek and weak to become strong. Zach is alpha to the core, try to avoid Sara so hard, but in the end he can't help himself to mark her and make Sara his mate. I love when their bantering each other and the sex scene between them is SMOKIN HOT!!

I try to see humor in this book, with so many crude word, it's not easy to find, but still I'm enjoy it :). This book is what I called "The first book in the series syndrome" so I don't expect more from this.

My favorite scene :

He saw the struggle on her face. Knew what she wanted to do. And
knew what she could handle. He expected her to walk away, and she
didn’t let him down. She walked away… for about five feet. Then, with a snarl, she spun back around and grabbed Casey from behind. One hand
in the woman’s hair, the other grabbing the denim jacket she wore. Sara snatched her off the bed and slammed Casey, face first, into the wall. She yanked her back, leaving a splash of blood on the white paint, and slammed her again. Then Sara threw her. Across the room and out the door, an arc of blood slashing across Marrec’ s bed. Zach heard Casey hit the wall with a sickening thud.

Yeah, you go girl!! :D

 

The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale (#1) By Christine Bell

I'm a time pirate—born in 1810, now a 21st-century woman. I travel through time trying to right wrongs without disrupting the fragile balance between what is and what can never be.

That's why it's vital that I go to 1836 and find the man who conned my brother out of his Time Travel Mechanism as quickly as possible. If the technology falls into the wrong hands, it could change the world as we know it. The notorious Duke of Leister definitely qualifies as the wrong hands. An amateur scientist of the slightly mad variety, he's bound to figure out how to use the TTM sooner rather than later.

I knew this wouldn't be easy. But I wasn't counting on him being as sexy as hell. Or winding up chained to his bed..

Rhonda's review:

OMGosh!!! This was an incredibly fun little story.

Stormy Gale is a time traveling pirate, born in London in the 1800’s, and has lived in the 21st century with her brother Bacon, (Yes I said Bacon ) and loves TV, Starbucks, and Ben & Jerry’s. Well, Stormy and Bacon find themselves having to time travel back to the 1800’s to retrieve Bacon’s time traveling mechanism that he lost during a drunken card game with the Loony Duke of Leister.

When they return to their 19th century London destination, Stormy sets up shop at the local fairgrounds, trying to pose as a gypsy fortune teller, in hopes of crossing paths with the Duke of Leister. She doesn’t know what he looks like, and Bacon was too drunk to remember. Well, soon enough , a “tall dark and handsome” strolls into her tent. After a short while, it’s discovered that this is the man she’s looking for. They play little games, while drinking wine. Stormy’s plan is to get the Loony Duke drunk, and hopefully pass out, with the help of drugging his wine as well. Her little plan backfires, and she ends up chained to a bed in the Duke’s torture chamber. It is soon discovered that the Duke is someone from her past, someone that meant a great deal to her. And apparently she means a great deal to him as well.

After the mission is accomplished, Stormy and Bacon return to the 21st century, but Stormy has lost her heart back in the 19th century.

Stormy was really funny, and I loved her sense of humor., and Bacon was very sweet. I didn’t get a great feel for Leister. The story is told in the 1st person POV, and I feel like Leister needs some polishing up. There is lots of potential in this story.

 

Funny,Funny,Har Har

Heimlich?

Two hillbillies walk into a restaurant. While having a bite to eat, they talk about their moonshine operation.

Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, 'Kin ya swallar?'

The woman shakes her head no.

Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?'

The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.

The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.

The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth.

As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table.
His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'

Callies Heart ( Lasso Springs #1) By Kathleen Bal

Callie Daniels' mother has one dying wish. She wants neighboring rancher, Garrett O'Neill, to marry her seventeen year old daughter. It's not supposed to be a conventional marriage. Garrett O'Neill would keep Callie's ranch safe and Callie would go away to college.

Four years later, Callie comes home with stars in her eyes and happily ever after in her heart. She plans to make their marriage real until finds the new housekeeper, Sylvie in Garrett's arms.

Heartbroken, Callie takes off to her own house, which they closed up four years ago. She stays there with Old Henry, a longtime friend and ranch hand, until her new horse injures her. Garrett forces Callie to move back in to his house.

Callie finally gets her heart's desire. Alone in a line shack, they make sweet love for the first time. Unfortunately the love light is gone from Garret's eyes the next morning.

Sam's Review:

I can’t say I often see a book and buy it on a whim, but this was pretty much what happened here. I keep seeing this book on Facebook and it just kept tempting me. So for the first time, I bought a book from Amazon on a chance. Turned out, it wasn’t too bad after all.

Callies Heart is a Western Romance that will have you one moment clicking the pages on your kindle faster than you can imagine, then the next have you huffing at the H/H for being down right stupid. It’s a story of love, hate, fear, murder, longing, family roots and obligations. Callie and Garret are bound together through contract and the soil that ties their ranches together.

Garret and Callie married before Callies mother died out of obligation so that Callie could keep their ranch their own. Callie then takes off to College for four years and when she gets back wants to make her marriage to Garrett a real one. What she didn’t expect to come home to was a murder investigation, attempted murder and a husband who can’t make his mind up.

Carrie is head over heels in love with Garrett and heck, he loves her right back but the two are just so stubborn!! I was smothering my screams of frustration at these two in my pillows at night trying not to wake my husband. When Garret wanted to explain something to Callie that got her riled up, she wouldn’t listen and kept running away and sobbing into her pillow. This happened repeatedly and although Carrie is a grown woman, it made her seem like a childish teenager who wasn’t getting her way.

Garret is obviously the head smart one of the pair but even so, this one makes so might dumb moves throughout the book that cause more heart ache than good. But saying all this, the two and throw between these two are what made the romance its own. They fought their battles, fought side by side and overcame hurdles that most more than likely wouldn’t.

The story had a really good mystery aspect to it that I wasn’t expecting. It was well written and had me guessing the whole book. When it was all revealed I couldn’t believe it. Most books you get the idea who the bad guy is, but in this story the author ends up making you suspicious of everyone.

It really is a book that throws you through a loop, has you loving and hating the characters and making you want more sooner rather than later.

Next book is released in September 2012 – this will be on my TBR list.

 

Friendly Fire By Megan Hart

Previously published; newly revised by author.

After Agent Kendall Frasier's partner is shot in "friendly fire" during a drug bust, she agrees to take a week's vacation on a tropical island as part of her psychiatric evaluation. Sand, sun, sea—what could be better to help her work through her guilt? Even if the presence of the man responsible for the shooting, Agent Zane Vincent, seems counterproductive to her mental health.

As Kendall gets to know Zane, and realizes he feels worse about what happened than she does, it becomes impossible to hate him. And their mutual attraction becomes impossible to deny.

Kendall and Zane soon agree to put the event that brought them together in the past—and spend the present exploring their most erotic desires. Do they have a future in the real world when their week in paradise is over?

Elena's Review:

  Kendall Fraiser is a DEA agent and Zane Vincent is an undercover agent working for the DEA.They were both forced to take a two week vacation to Corazon del Mar,to undergo psychological evaluation and therapy.This all happens after a tragic accident,where Kendall loses her partner,Dan Whitney in the line of duty and she puts the blame on Zane Vincent. Because of this result,she can't stand Zane being in her presence. I think Kendall was a little snooty with the situation,because when she comes to realize she didn't care for her partner at all,it was just guilt for losing her asswipe partner.Kendall felt as if she could have done more to protect him,since it was her job to protect her partner.Now she feels like she failed him,and no matter how much she disliked him, in her eyes,he still didn't deserve to die. But as they say he died in a "Friendly Fire" Zane had tried controlling the situation during the bust to take down the Yoda brothers (drug dealers) Kendall's partner Dan, had stepped in the way of Zane's bullet. Of course after everything that went down,that is why Kendall blames Zane for the sudden death of her partner. Little does she know,it was harder on Vincent then her.

After a few days of bickering between the two. Kendall gives Zane the benefit of the doubt,and OOOOH BOY! It's gets steamy! Is that what happens,when opposites attract? Cause I swear their little rendezvous on the island leads to puppy love and all that! ahahahaha....Keeping their hands off one another was a huge No-No.The attraction was definitely there. Lolz!

I thought it was a very cute read,just a little disappointed it was cut short.I would loved to have read more on the relationship between Kendall and Zane progress outside of their one-week vacation,but it was good,I liked it!.For a Megan Hart novel,it was quite different than many she has written.I guess not everything she writes will make you sob and see reality in a whole totally different view. So it was really nice to see a different change in her writing style. It was a very well-developed story plot and I definitely loved the characters!