This post contains affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a small commission should you purchase using those links. All opinions expressed are my own. I receive no compensation for reviews.

VBB Weekly – 01.12.2015

Highlights

Never Never Chat – Tonight at 8:30 p.m. CST, we are chatting with Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher in the VBB Vixens reading group! Join us!
Exclusive Cover Reveal + Excerpt + Giveaway: A Stone in the Sea by A.L. Jackson
Exclusive Excerpt: Thicker than Blood by Madeline Sheehan and Claire C. Riley
2015 Top 10 Most Anticipated Reads – Check out which books made the cut on my list of the top ten PNR and fantasy reads!
Epic Announcement – Sylvain Reynard announced this week that he and E.L. James are collaborating on a project!!! Read up here.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Currently Reading

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of Burned in preparation for my review on USA Today on 1/19, and want to let you guys know how awesome this book is so far… I’m almost done! It really captures that original feel of the first five books in the Fever series and is primarily told in Mac’s point-of-view! Make sure to pre-order!

Currently Listening To

Up Next

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

New Releases

(Click cover to order)

http://amzn.to/2EJqXC6

http://amzn.to/1wlBw3E

http://amzn.to/2vkkz23

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Releasing This Week

Blindsided (#1 By His Game) by Emma Hart (Available Now) – 99¢

From Emma Hart, the New York Times bestselling author of the Game series, comes a brand new series where the game is realer, the tension is tighter, the sex is hotter, and the stakes are the highest of all…

Two people. Two agendas. Two games.

What happens when the out-there It-Boy of football meets the secret It-Girl of fashion?

As the daughter of Hollywood’s sweetheart, Leah Veronica can’t even buy a coffee without finding her face on a magazine stand, so it’s no wonder she’s launching her first fashion line in secret. With it debuting at New York Fashion Week in just under a month, extra time in the spotlight is the last thing she needs.

The son of the best quarterback the league has ever seen, filling legendary shoes as the L.A. Vipers’ quarterback was inevitable for Corey Jackson. So was meeting Leah Veronica—the first girl to hand him his ass without putting a hair out of place.

Getting the handsome, prickly blonde into his bed becomes his number one goal. But getting the sexy, over-confident footballer the hell away from her becomes Leah’s—at least until she realizes the best way to do that is to give him what he wants.

If only it was that simple.

When Corey discovers who she is, and private photos of Hollywood’s finest find their way online, everything they thought they knew is thrown into disarray.

And when secrets are exposed and hearts are shattered, they have to figure out if they’ve been blindsided by love or reality, and if it’s worth running the extra yard to win the game they never meant to play.

This is the first in the By His Game series (contemporary romance), but can be read as a standalone.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Filthy Beautiful Forever (#4, Filthy Beautiful Lies) by Kendall Ryan (Available Now)

One seemingly innocuous promise.The one girl he could never forget….

Collins Drake exercises control over all facets of his life. From his business, to his relationships, to satisfying his physical needs … it all happens on his command. So when a woman shows up at his door and reminds him of a promise they made each other when they were just ten years old, it shouldn’t have the ability to rock his entire world. Yet it does.

Because Mia Monroe wasn’t just his childhood best friend, she wasn’t just the girl he lost his virginity to and hasn’t seen since, she’s the one exception to his perfect control. And piece by piece, she’s about to tear apart his carefully laid plans.

This is book 4 in the Filthy Beautiful Lies series (contemporary romance/second chance romance). It can also be read as a standalone.

Reading Order: Filthy Beautiful Lies | Filthy Beautiful Love | Filthy Beautiful Lust | Filthy Beautiful Forever

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Branded (#2, Ignite Trilogy) by Tara Sivec (Available Now)

I wear my scars like a scarlet letter, reminding myself that I’m not worth the trouble.
I’ve spent seventeen years pushing men away, never allowing myself to believe in the fairytale…then, he walked back in.

Just like before, we explode when we’re together. I hate him for what he did to me, but I can’t stay away.

Eighteen days filled with passion and promises.
Nineteen letters filled with threats and foreboding.
It only takes twenty minutes for the numbers to all add up.
One thousand, two hundred seconds until everything changes and there’s no going back.

This is my story, and it’s going to leave a scar.

This is part of the Ignite series (sexy romantic suspense), but it can be read as a standalone.

Reading Order: Burned | Branded | Scorched

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Thicker Than Blood by Madeline Sheehan & Claire C. Riley (Available Now) – Read an excerpt

A true friendship never dies.

Leisel and Evelyn lost everything. Husbands. Families. Friends. Lives that made sense. All they had left was each other, and a friendship that could withstand anything…

Even an apocalypse.

Until one fateful night, the marginal safety they’d come to rely on comes to a vicious and brutal end. With the help of Alex & Jami, both unlikely allies, Leisel and Evelyn are able to escape their shattered sanctuary only to find themselves face-to-face with a much altered, much crueler life where they have to find the way—and the will—to stay alive in a world they no longer recognize.

Traveling across a broken and infection-ridden country; the road-weary group are pitted against endless violence, improbable circumstances, and the ultimate loss.
Everything comes at a price—especially safety, the cost of which could very well strip them of the one thing they’ve tried so hard to cling to: their humanity.

Yet along with all the trials they’re forced to endure, there’s also hope in the form of love. Having loved Leisel from afar, Alex attempts to put the pieces of her fractured heart back together.

But in such a savage world, is there room for love?

In a place of nightmares-made-reality, where the living should be feared far more than the dead, an unbreakable friendship and a love amongst all odds can mean the difference between life and death.

There are friends…

And then there are Leisel and Evelyn.

This is a standalone thriller/suspense novel.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Dirty Ties by Pam Godwin (Available Now)

Revenge.
I race to finance it.
I evade to protect it.
I kill to attain it.
I planned everything.

Except her.
The alluring, curvaceous blonde at the finish line.
With sapphire eyes that cheat and lie.
Whose powerful family murdered mine.

I hate her.
I want her.

I know she’s hiding something.
But so am I.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Promise to Marry (#1 Promises Book) by Jessica Wood (Available Now)

We were best friends since as early as I could remember. We grew up together. We were next door neighbors. We shared each other’s deepest secrets. When I was thirteen, we made a pact: if we were still single by the time we were 30, we’d marry each other.

Today was my thirtieth birthday. I was single. I knew he was single too.

But we were no longer best friends, and a part of me knew that he hated me.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Feel Again by Faith Andrews (Available Now) – $1.95

A dare.

A dying wish.

Fate…

After years of loneliness, widowed Gabriella is ready to fill the void—as long as she doesn’t have to give her heart to another man.

Caleb’s screwed himself right into a dead-end existence. Faced with an ultimatum, he’s hell-bound on changing his reckless ways.

A chance meeting has these two instantly attracted to one another, but when their paths cross again—this time as professor and student—the roles reverse on Professor Edwards as Caleb teaches her how to feel again.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

From This Moment (#1 Jackson Hole) by Lexi Buchanan (Available Now)

The last thing Rona Jameson expected was the scorching connection she feels to Cade Matthews. At twenty-four, Rona is embarking on what should have been her honeymoon to Jackson Hole, Wyoming…alone. Having just gotten out of one relationship, she’s hesitant to jump into another. But there’s something about the forty-five year old single father of three that calls to her.

Cade knows it would be best to steer clear of Rona, but he can’t deny the chemistry and longing he feels towards her. No other woman has ever made him feel strung so tight. The age difference between them however is something he’s not sure he can overcome.

Jake Matthews, Cade’s son, is heading home after receiving an honorable discharge from the Marines. He broke things off with Elise, six years ago, when he joined the service, afraid of her being left alone if something happened to him. Now he’s back and ready to claim the girl he’s never been able to forget. There’s only one problem, she’s engaged to another man.

Can Jake win Elise back and prove to her he’s worthy of a second chance? Will Rona and Cade overcome their doubts and fears, and the other obstacles in their way?

From NY Times Bestselling author, Lexi Buchanan, two love stories in one, with a touch of taboo.

Note, this is the updated version of From This Moment, and has 30k+ extra words with story changes – hence the new version as opposed to updating the original file.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Fatal Scandal by Marie Force (Jan 13)

As a new year dawns in the capital city, dual scandals rock the Metropolitan Police Department—and Lieutenant Sam Holland is right in the middle of them. Chief Farnsworth is catching heat for the way he handled a recent homicide investigation, and Detective Gonzales is accused of failing to disclose an earlier connection to the judge who decided his custody hearing.

When Gonzo’s fight for his child turns deadly and he has a shaky alibi, Sam must defend two of her closest colleagues. All while her husband, Vice President Nick Cappuano, settles into his new office at the White House.

Nick begins to wonder if the president is using him for a political boost, and his worries mount over a complication in the plans to adopt Scotty at a time when Sam is being put through the wringer by the always-rabid DC press corps. As the evidence against Gonzo piles up, Sam suspects someone is gunning for her—and her team.

Read how Nick and Sam’s relationship began in Fatal Affair.

This is book 8 of the Fatal series.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Corps Security: The Series by Harper Sloan (Jan 13)

This set includes the entire Corps Security series together for a limited-time box set. Titles included are Axel, Cage, Beck, Uncaged, Cooper and Locke.

Years after the Marines brought them together, the men of Corps Security are together again.

These six novels follow their lives as they take a chance at love. Can love truly conquer all?

From broken souls to broken hearts, they all will find out if they’ll get their second chance at happily ever afters and that love really is worth fighting for.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (Jan 13)

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointy as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down and a hero is needed to save them all, Hazel tries to remember her years spent pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall (Jan 13)

A fast-paced international escapade, laced with adrenaline, glamour, and romance–perfect for fans of Ally Carter

Avery West’s newfound family can shut down Prada when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. Part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle, they believe Avery is the key to an ancient prophecy. Some want to use her as a pawn. Some want her dead.

To unravel the mystery putting her life in danger, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the monuments of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul with two boys who work for the Circle—beautiful, volatile Stellan and mysterious, magnetic Jack. But as the clues expose a stunning conspiracy that might plunge the world into World War 3, she discovers that both boys are hiding secrets of their own. Now she will have to choose not only between freedom and family–but between the boy who might help her save the world, and the one she’s falling in love with.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Reckless Nights (#1, Vegas Nights) by Karen Erickson (Jan 13)

Sometimes dream crushes do come true.

Reagan can’t believe her luck—and not in a good way. One minute she’s hanging out with her friends at an exclusive party in Las Vegas. The next, she’s attracted the attention of a famous actor. Not just any actor. Declan Carter, the man on whom she used to—okay, might still—have a fangirl crush. Whose blue eyes leave her embarrassingly tongue tied.

All Declan wants is to meet a nice, normal woman who won’t use him as a stepping stone to fame. Something about Reagan tells him she could be that rare woman, and he follows his instinct to invite her back to his suite—where they proceed to have wild monkey sex. All. Night. Long.

What was supposed to be one night of no-regrets sex stretches out into a blissful weekend of two people who can’t get enough of each other. But when the glamour of Sin City wears off, they’re standing on the edge of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn a weekend fling into something lasting. Will they take the jump?

Warning: Smokin’ hot sexy weekend with a gorgeous actor? There shouldn’t be a warning—more like encouragement to indulge your fantasies!

This is the first book in the Vegas Nights contemporary romance series.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Beyond the Consequences (#5, Consequences) by Aleatha Romig (Jan 15)

From New York Times bestselling author Aleatha Romig comes more of the suspenseful romantic thriller about secrets and deception, passion and love, choices and consequences.

Secrets and deception

As the pieces of their puzzle come together, Anthony and Claire Rawlings continue to defy the odds. Together they overcame an incomprehensible beginning. Apart they endured unimaginable heartache. Reunited with family and friends, their journey continues as they navigate a dangerous world where secrets threaten to destroy what they hold the most dear.

Passion and love

Tony and Claire turn up the heat as sparks fly, passion rages, and love prevails. With only a dark glance or devilish grin, the fire that sparked in an isolated suite, continues to burn. Though no longer willing to be less than Tony’s equal in life, behind closed doors only one man makes the rules.

Choices and consequences

The safety of the Rawlings family is not debatable, and only Phillip Roach can assure that they are not disappointed. Learn how he leads old friends and new associates through the dangerous world of delusion and revenge. The choices he makes for both the family and his personal life will have consequences.

Beyond the Consequences is a novel that began as the novella, A Peek Beyond the Consequences, in a limited-release anthology, Breathless. Since its publication in 2014, Beyond the Consequences has more than tripled in length with more action, heat, and secrets to reveal. Learn once and for all the identity and fate of the sender of the Rawls-Nichols letters as you join the Rawlings for a special surprise!

Theirs was a long, complicated story with a monster and a knight. What made their story unique was that these two players were the same person.

This is the fifth, full-length novel in the Consequence series.

My Reviews: Consequences | Truth | Convicted | BHE: Consequences | The Missing Years

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Pre-Orders

(Click images to buy or for more info)

Jan-20

http://amzn.to/2iZQyMX

Jan-27

https://amzn.to/3uQw8ZX

Feb-17

Feb-24

http://amzn.to/2hJYqlv

http://amzn.to/1wxBXZb

http://amzn.to/1xsXQcI

http://amzn.to/2vcZ00S

★ Visit THIS PAGE for the full list of releases! ★

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

New Reviews

Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
Filthy Beautiful Forever by Kendall Ryan

Must Read Recommendation

Guys! This debut novel from Victoria Aveyard is coming February 10th and I just want you guys to know that you have to give it a try… it’s AWESOME! It’s like a ‘Game of Thrones’ story with lots of deceit, romance and action. In Aveyard’s world, people are divided by the color of their blood: Reds and Silvers. Silvers are the elite and they all tout some kind of super ability, and the Reds are those who serve them… struggling through life and living under fear of death. It was a richly imagined story which breathes new life into the typical fantasy/adventure book. I couldn’t put it down. This is definitely one you should look forward to reading! Pre-order.

Red Queen is the first in a series, and ends in a happy-for-now, but more-to-come kind of ending and I already can’t wait to devour the next book!

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦