Welcome to Smokin' Hot Book Blog

A MONSTER LIKE ME by Pamela Sparkman

Heart of Darkness series #2

HELLO STRANGER by Lisa Kleypas

The Ravenels series #4

THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT by Emma Scott

Companion to the Full Tilt series

PLAYING FOR KEEPS by Jill Shalvis

Heartbreaker Bay series #7

UNWRITTEN by Jen Frederick

Woodlands series #5

Cross My Heart by L.H. Cosway

Hearts series #5.75

MOONSHADOW by Thea Harrison

Moonshadow series #1

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Release Blitz: Stars by Malorie Verdant

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STARS
by Malorie Verdant
 APRIL 30th!






He changed my life.
With a smile, a flick of his wrist and a death-defying stunt.
He was six and I was five.
And now, thirteen years later, I am hopelessly in love.
There is only a slight problem.
He doesn’t know I exist.
He’s the star quarterback.
I’m a science nerd who hides in the shadows.
I don’t need anyone to tell me that college won't change anything.
I know he’s the star of this story.
And I belong in the audience.

Parker Elliot is going to Penmore State University miles away from home. She's leaving her small town because Penmore has a fantastic science department, because she needs to begin exploring the life she wants to lead and because Grayson Waters is the starting quarterback for the Penmore Herons.

Grayson Waters at first glance lives life to the fullest, but he is dealing with more than meets the eye. A con artist father in trouble with local mobsters, an illegitimate brother living close by, the pressure of leading his team to the championship game and a desire to pursue a career outside the football field. Decisions need to be made. For Gray, slipping into the shadows with a pretty and observant brunette might be just what he needs to finally make the right ones.













Fire and the Flood - Vance Joy
Here - Alessia Cara
Star - Bryan Adam
Beyond the Blue - Beth Nielsen Chapman
You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift
How Deep Is Your Love- Calvin Harris & Disciples 
Like a Star - Corinne Bailey Rae
The Fire - The Roots & John Legend
My Body is a Cage - Arcade Fire
Water Under the Bridge - Adele
Answer - Sarah McLachlan




I first started reading romance when I was twelve.

My mother handed me her copy of Nora Robert’s Midnight Bayou and with resignation said, “Here you’ll love it, just skip the sex scenes or at least tell me you did.”

She knew I was young and she hoped I didn’t understand the diverse innuendos, but she also saw early on that I was a hopeless romantic and had a joy and thirst for romance novels that not even she and her protective motherly instincts could stop.











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Friday, April 29, 2016

Cover reveal with Giveaway: Hit the Spot by J. Daniels

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Title: Hit the Spot 
Series: Dirty Deeds #2
Author: J. Daniels
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance
Genre: Contemporary Romance 
Release Date: December 6, 2016



Hit the Spot

"Love! That's the four letter word to describe how I felt about this unique, sexy story. J. Daniels' hottest book to date."---Penelope Ward, New York Times bestselling author on Four Letter Word

New York Times bestselling author J. Daniels brings us the second book in her Dirty Deeds series. Hit the Spot features Jamie and Tori's story.

This book can be read as a stand-alone.





Pre-order Links

AMAZON US / UK / AU
B&N / KOBO US / UK
iBOOKS US / UK / AU 






Also Available


Pre-order for October 4, 2016

AMAZON US / UK / AU
B&N / KOBO US / UK
iBOOKS US / UK / AU 






Author Bio

J. Daniels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Sweet Addiction series, the Alabama Summer series, and the upcoming Dirty Deeds series.

She would rather bake than cook, she listens to music entirely too loud, and loves writing stories her children will never read. Her husband and children are her greatest loves, with cupcakes coming in at a close second.

J grew up in Baltimore and resides in Maryland with her family.



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Release Boost with Giveaway: Shameless by Lex Martin

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Title: Shameless
Author: Lex Martin 
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 26, 2016 



Blurb

Brady…
What the hell do I know about raising a baby? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing. 

Yet here I am, the sole guardian of my niece. I’d be lost if it weren’t for Katherine, the beautiful girl who seems to have all the answers. Katherine, who’s slowly finding her way into my cynical heart.

I keep reminding myself that I can’t fall for someone when we don’t have a future. But telling myself this lie and believing it are two different things.

Katherine…
When Brady shows up on a Harley, looking like an avenging angel—six feet, three inches of chiseled muscle, eyes the color of wild sage, and sun-kissed skin emblazoned with tattoos—I’m not sure if I should fall at his feet or run like hell. Because if I tell him what happened the night his family died, he might hate me. 

What I don’t count on are the nights we spend together trying to forget the heartache that brought us here. I promise him it won’t mean anything, that I won’t fall in love.

I shouldn’t make promises I can’t keep.

Shameless is an adult contemporary romance/spinoff featuring a character from The Dearest Series, but it can be read as a complete standalone.







Purchase Links

Last chance to get your copy for only 99c!!!

AMAZON US / UK / UNIVERSAL
B&N / KOBO / iBOOKS






Also Available


The Dearest Series Boxed Set is FREE on KU for a limited time. Get all three Dearest Series books, including Dearest Clementine, Finding Dandelion and Kissing Madeline, as well as Dearest Series bonus scenes and the first chapter of Shameless.



Purchase Links

AMAZON US / UK / UNIVERSAL




Author Bio

Lex writes adult novels, the sexy kind with lotsa angst, a whole lotta kissing, and the hot happily ever afters. When she's not writing, she lives a parallel life as an English teacher. She loves printing black and white photos, listening to music on vinyl, and getting lost in a great book. Bitten by wanderlust, she's lived all over the country but currently resides in the City of Angels with her husband and twin daughters.


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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Christie's review: This is Love by Caroline Nolan

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Title: This is Love
Series: Standalone
Author: Caroline Nolan
Release date: November 3, 2015
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 5 stars

Rachel Miller had love, life and happiness...until she didn't. Uncertain of how to cope and move on without him, Rachel's life comes to halt as she mourns the loss of her fiance Ben. Then one night she discovers it doesn't have to. By way of dreams, Rachel and Ben continue to live the life they had planned together. It's unconventional, it's not even real, but it's enough for Rachel. For the first time since Ben's death, she's happy...whole. That is until she runs into someone she barely knew from years ago and suddenly real life is just as great as her dream one. Now Rachel doesn't know what to do. Will letting someone new in threaten what she has with Ben? Or will their love story threaten her new happiness? Is it crazy to chase after a ghost while being caught up by someone very real?





This is Love was such a powerful and moving story. It's a story about one woman's tragic loss of her beloved fiancé and how she struggled to cope in the aftermath. What follows is a pointed and thoughtful look at the healing process that someone struggling with grief must go through. Despair, guilt, anger, numbness, and fear are only a few of the stages and expressions of her loss.

My world had forever changed in a matter of a minute. Sixty seconds. How many people can say that? Be prepared for that?


So far, you're probably thinking that this sounds pretty depressing, aren't you? Well, you'd be wrong. That was the beauty of this book, and one of the reasons why I was so impressed with this new author's talent. Even though the subject matter was very weighty, it wasn't excruciating to read. The heaviness was cut with really engaging and witty characters that I didn't want to stop reading about. I can't tell you how many times Rachel or her friends made me smile or even outright laugh. I wasn't expecting it to have that added layer to the story and it made a world of difference.

After a long year of merely surviving and going through the motions rather than living, Rachel has found sweet relief from her unhappy reality. She's visited by her beloved Ben in her dreams. In brief but comforting flashes, she grasps on to him with everything she has. Those fading feelings of happiness she once had flare to life again with her walk through her memories with the man she loved.


Until everything comes to a screeching halt again when a new man enters her life.

Jackson was that guy in high school everyone wanted, a couple of years ahead of Rachel, but she was well aware of his presence. When she sees him on her first night out with friends, she's strangely shaken and unsettled. A fragile friendship forms and Jackson slowly coaxes her out of the safe bubble she's been existing in. Suddenly she's smiling in the present, finding joy in new moments. And slowly he starts to stir emotions that she has no desire to have and no ability to stop.

I want Jax too much. My feelings for him have grown so strong that losing him would devastate me.. I should have stopped this months ago, but I didn't. I couldn't. I was powerless against him then, even more so now.

One of my concerns was that her love that she held and cherished for Ben would detract the attention away from her present with Jax. Thankfully, that wasn't the case at all. I came to love both men, and I could honestly feel how she could be so torn and unable to take the steps to move firmly into the unknown with this wonderful man waiting quietly for her.

I loved seeing watching Jax and Rachel's attraction slowly and tenderly unfurl. He was so patient and respectful even while the sexual tension was heavily patent. I swear, these two had my heart pounding so many times, just waiting for him to break through her delicate emotional barriers. It was so, so good.

"If you want this even a fraction of how much I want it, tell me." His hands come up, spreading across the sides of my face, the tips of his fingers now lost in my hair. "Are you telling me, Rachel?" he whispers, almost pleading with me to say yes.


This is Love is more than just a story about another broken woman who finds love again. It's a depiction of the emotional battle that someone dealing with loss goes through. The choices that must be made in order to let go without a burdened spirit into the future. Caroline Nolan has presented a book that I not only devoured, but would gladly re-read many times. It was such a beautiful and poignant story, and one I won't soon forget.



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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Christie's review: Ladies Man by Katy Evans

9:46:00 AM  ,  No comments

27231804




Title: Ladies Man
Series: Manwhore #3
Author: Katy Evans
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Rating: 1 star
Cliffhanger: No

TAHOE ROTH.
Irreverent, cocky, playful and naughty.
He’s not the guy you date.
He’s the one night stand.
The one your mother warned you about.
The one your body craves.

You’d think the man who called me succulent would want to strip me down and spread me out on his bed—like he’s done with countless others.
But he passed on my offer….
Just like I’d once passed on his.
He’s wary, like I am.
He’s broken, like I am.
And everyone knows two broken parts can’t ever make a whole.
Tahoe and I are strictly friends.
So I distract myself with other men.
He doesn’t think my new man is good enough. This blond blue-eyed beast doesn’t think any man is—himself included.
But the more time we spend together, the more confused I feel.
I'm trying to open myself to love.
Yet I'm quickly realizing that the only man I want is Tahoe Roth.
The one man who will surely break my heart.





It really pains me to have to give this book such a rating, I really expected when starting this that I'd be falling all over myself in excitement. Sadly, that's just not the case. No matter how hard I tried to fit the square peg in the round hole, this book wasn't the right fit for me.

I finally had to admit defeat: I didn't like Tahoe Roth. In addition? Gina wasn’t a particular favorite either.

There. I said it. When you don’t like either main character of a book, there’s a serious problem.

I say this with all due respect to the author, because some of her books have been top favorites that I've read and re-read over the years. Typically, I love her writing. She has a phenomenal ability to create the most intense and raw chemistry between her characters. It's the kind of erotic tension that pulls so taut that it has your chest fluttering in anticipation. I didn't feel that here. Tahoe and Gina's odd and convoluted relationship towards each other had me shaking my head in either bafflement or anger.

Gina and Tahoe are both best friends to the main characters of the previous three Manwhore books, Rachel and Saint. They had an obvious attraction, but Gina has been burned badly by her ex and isn't open to relationships. Not that Tahoe is either. He's the worst kind of manwhore and not remotely sorry. Which takes us to the beginning of Ladies Man. Gina and Tahoe have fallen into a zone that's kind of friends/kind of not. Wishing for more, but at the same time...not.

He's annoying. He's cocky. Selfish. Self-centered. Really, I don't even know why we're friends.

I want to take him home and kiss him.
I want him to take me home and kiss me.
And then I want to forget I ever kissed him, and ever wanted to.

This is Gina from one moment to the next. From page one until far into the book. In a way, I understood her mixed emotions, but honestly I never had much sympathy. She wasn’t the strong independent woman she was portrayed as in the other books. She was something else. She didn’t know, and I sure as hell didn’t know. She was a revolving door of emotions: hesitant, needy, and desperate. I wanted to slap her on each cheek and say, “For God’s sake, pull yourself together, woman!” My patience soon started to wear thin.

Tahoe gives her a heavy lidded stare, looks at her like he wants to eat her for dessert...then walks off with a woman (or two, or three) to prove what a manwhore he is. Almost every single scene where Tahoe and Gina run into one another in the first half, he's surrounded by women. He whores his way around town in her face repeatedly. Then she still either silently aches for him, or pretends it was fine? Not enjoyable. Not for me.

There were too many contradictions in what they said, what they thought, and what they did. It made me feel nothing but frustration seeing them try to understand what they wanted.

(view spoiler)

Cut to around 65%. Suddenly, the grey clouds shift away and the sun comes out. We're finally at the point I wanted them to be much, much sooner. He's finally focused on Gina.

"Wow. Spurning some invitations somewhere?" I narrow my eyes in bemusement. "They really want you there."
He tucks it back into his pocket. "Yeah. Not interested."

The last twenty percent is where they evolve into a couple. After doing their soul searching, they're ready to let go of everything that was holding them back. All of their sweet words, tender touches, and uncontrollable passion were crammed tight into the end. Leaving me unsatisfied and wishing there were more. Tahoe and Gina's move from friendship into more spanned a time frame of over a year. Personally, I think that year was not spent doing things I enjoyed reading about.

I love this author, I love many of her books, but unfortunately this book was not what I was hoping for. You may not feel the same as me, you may feel that their push and pull feelings during their "friendship" is angsty and exciting. I'm sure a lot of people will love this couple, and more power to them. I'm thinking that I'm going to be in the minority this time around. I still may read Callan's story in September, but that's a big maybe at this point.

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