Phoebe’s Pick – Read-Love-Blog

Phoebe’s Picks….Armchair Travel Edition & Giveaway

Phoebe’s Picks: Armchair Travel Edition

One of the things I love most about reading is being taken away, escaping, traveling to places I may never see except in the pages of a book. And time travel! Until a time machine drops into my lap, books are my ticket to other times and places. Here are three books that transported me and made me momentarily forget I was a suburban housewife with three children.

Bitter Spirits

by Jenn Bennett

I keep hearing that paranormal is dead and doesn’t sell. Publishers are only looking for something new and fresh. Well, here it is. Bitter Spirits is set in 1920’s San Francisco (Chinatown) during Prohibition. The heroine, Aida, is a spirit medium who parlays her gift into a stage show. The hero, Winter Magnusson, is a bootlegger with a ghost problem. The setting, the clothes, the language – it all worked to whisk me away. I can’t wait for book two.

Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

The Chocolate Thief

by Laura Florand

Paris. Gourmet chocolate. Paris. An arrogant but sexy chocolatier. And did I mention Paris? Florand weaves a tasty tale set in the world of expensive, handmade chocolate. The scenes where the hero, Sylvain, was making chocolate were some of the sexiest scenes in the book – even more so than the actual sexy times. Maybe that says something about me? Not sure, but this was a lovely read and I’m salivating to read the rest of the series.

Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Bollywood and the Beast

by Suleikha Snyder

An American-born actress moves to India to pursue her dream of making it in Bollywood in this fun take on the Beauty and the Beast story. I loved the characters in this book. More so than the physical setting, the characters, particularly our heroine, Rakhee, gave me a sense of place. Rakhee has an American mother and Indian father and she navigates the two cultures very well, except for her Hindi. The language barrier only added to my feeling of being transported when she moves into our hero’s home and spends time with his grandmother learning Hindi. I was swept away in the world of Bollywood too. Very enjoyable read. This is the third book in Snyder’s Bollywood Confidential series but can be read alone.

*Comment of this blog post with a place you’ve read about that you would love to visit and one lucky winner will get all three BOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL e-books courtesy of the author!*

Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Phoebe’s Picks….Reaper’s Legacy by Joanna Wylde

My good friend and up-and-coming author, Phoebe Chase, will be stopping by every now and then with a recent read she would love to recommend.

Thanks for stopping by to check out her latest pick. Enjoy!

Reaper’s Legacy (Reapers MC #2) by Joanna Wylde

Synopsis:

Eight years ago, Sophie gave her heart-and her virginity-to Zach Barrett on a night that couldn’t have been less romantic or more embarrassing. Zach’s step-brother, a steely-muscled, tattooed biker named Ruger, caught them in the act, getting a peep show of Sophie he’s never forgotten.

She may have lost her dignity that fateful night, but Sophie also gained something precious-her son Noah. Unfortunately, Zach’s a deadbeat dad, leaving Ruger to be Noah’s only male role model. When he discovers Sophie and his nephew living in near poverty, Ruger takes matters into his own hands-with the help of the Reapers Motorcycle Club-to give them a better life.

Living with outlaw bikers wasn’t Sophie’s plan for her son, but Ruger isn’t giving her a choice. He’ll be there for Noah, whether she wants him or not. But Sophie does want him, has always wanted him. Now she’ll learn that taking a biker to bed can get a girl dirty in every way.

***

Are you a Kristen Ashley fan because of her Chaos Motorcycle Club books? Then you’re a Joanna Wylde fan too, you just may not know it yet. It took me almost a year to get around to reading the first Reaper MC book, Reaper’s Property, but it only took me a few hours to be hooked. Cue instant gratification and heading right into book two.

Ruger is the step-brother of Sophie’s baby daddy. He also just happens to be a member of the Reapers Motorcycle Club, dangerously sexy and pierced in all the right places with the requisite ink and low-slung pants. Ruger and Sophie’s backstory was so well written that by the end of chapter two I was already fully invested and rooting for them as a couple.

The pacing is good, the plot is interesting and the sex is HOT. I didn’t think anything would be able to stand up to my love for Motorcycle Man and the Chaos books, but Wylde and her band of Reapers have proved me wrong. I’m only halfway through this second book and I’m so jazzed about it that I’m calling Reaper’s Legacy a Phoebe’s Pick!

Links:

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble

Reaper’s Legacy is a Phoebe’s Pick!

About the author:

Joanna Wylde is the author of erotic and mainstream romance novels.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

About Phoebe:

Phoebe Chase loves books. Keep your eye on her, she may just tempt you with some stories of her own. You can catch a little of what goes on in her head at Wickedly Twisted Tales.

Twitter ~ Facebook

Phoebe’s Pick….Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau

Introducing a new feature here on Read-Love-Blog…Phoebe’s Picks!

My good friend and up-and-coming author, Phoebe Chase, will be stopping by every now and then with a recent read she would love to recommend. Thanks for stopping by to check out her very first pick. Enjoy!

Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau

Book links:

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Goodreads

Synopsis:

Liv Braxton’s Felon Rule #1: Don’t get emotionally involved.

Smash-and-grab thieving doesn’t lend itself to getting chummy with the victims, and Liv hasn’t met anyone on the mining colony of Nevarro worth knowing, anyway. So it’s easy to follow her Rules.

Until her ex, Tonio, shows up with an invitation to join him on the job of a lifetime.

Until Zia Talbot, the woman she’s supposed to deceive, turns Liv’s expectations upside down in a way no woman ever has.

Until corporate secrets turn deadly.

But to make things work with Zia, Liv has to do more than break her Rules, and the stakes are higher than just a broken heart . . .

***

Well, consider me a Cathy Pegau fan. This book reads like a kickass heist movie IN SPACE with the requisite fast-paced ending and twists I never saw coming. In other words, I loved it! It’s smart and funny and the plot kept me turning the pages. I thought the world-building and science fiction elements were well done.

Liv, our heroine, is funny in that “Oh, I wish I had said that” kind of way. Yep, she’s a smartass. She makes a classic mistake during a job—she falls for her mark, Zia. Who happens to be another woman. The romance doesn’t kick in until the second half of the book and some reviews I read thought Liv’s conflicted feelings for her ex in the first half of the book negated the romance with Zia or made them root for a reunion. I feel like it added another layer of depth. For me, it felt like a natural progression. Liv works with hunky ex, has impure thoughts and almost acts on them. (I mean who hasn’t almost slipped and hooked up with an ex?). Meets girl. Thinks girl is hot. Falls for girl. I think someone who didn’t necessarily know they could fall in love with a member of the same sex might discover it in just that fashion.

Rulebreaker is a Phoebe’s Pick!

About the author:

I had stories revolving in my head as a kid, but made little effort to get them down on paper. Home computers were rare way back then, and using my Brother Correct-O-Typewriter was a pain. Funny, then, I thought it too time consuming to use a pen and paper. Now, I will most likely write my stuff out by hand before sitting at the computer to input/edit.

Writing was not the career path I chose when the time came. I thought the arts, while enjoyable, was not the way to make a living. So I went into science. Wildlife biology, to be exact. Yep, plenty of prosperous biologists wandering about in the woods, you know. Obviously money was not high on my list of job perks. But I enjoyed the course work (how many college students can say THAT?) and managed to get short-term positions for a few years. It was fun, hard and sweaty work, and gave me the chance to see and do things I wouldn’t have if I had chosen accounting or even writing. Like get lost in the woods overnight. But that’s another story.

I got engaged, then married–to a scientist, assuring perpetual financial uncertainty. We lived in Oregon for a while, and when he was offered a job in Alaska we jumped at it. So, now we live here with our kids and critters and the occasional moose strolling through the yard. I can’t afford therapy, so I write. I want to do what I want to do, so I write. I want my kids to know that pursuing dreams is important, so I write.

Website ~ Twitter

About Phoebe:

Phoebe Chase loves books. Keep your eye on her, she may just tempt you with some stories of her own. You can catch a little of what goes on in her head at Wickedly Twisted Tales.

Twitter ~ Facebook