BOUGHT BORROWED AND BAGGED #8

~ Hosted by Talk Supe ~ 

BB&B (Bought, Borrowed and Bagged) is a weekly meme, inspired my The Story Siren and Pop Culture Junkie, where we share with you the books that we have bought, borrowed or bagged (won or gifted) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews, on going events and book movie or television news. 

Last week, I was at RAGT and did not get to post my usual BB&B, so this week is gonna look like I went a bit crazy. But this is over 2 weeks of books, people. 

BOUGHT

White Chocolate (New Castle, Book One)
Lydia Michaels

Kat D’Angelo’s bittersweet life is about to get decadent. Four years after the scandal of her young pregnancy, Kat has finally managed to come to terms with her otherwise lackluster life. Budgeted to the penny and scheduled to the minute, Kat’s highest priority is her daughter, Mia. After being deserted by Mia’s father, abandoned by her conservative family, and broke to the point of near starvation, Kat has grown into a woman incapable of trusting others with her happiness. She is determined, for the sake of her daughter, to maintain a simple, organized life, free of unnecessary pleasures. However, when Tyson Adams, a successful, African American entrepreneur, becomes her new neighbor, Kat learns that some pleasures are too sweet to resist.


A beautiful telling of the power of love, the fear of diversity and a mother’s unconditional sacrifice that bursts with emotion, touches the heart, and erupts with passion. Unforgettable.


Entwined with You (Crossfire, Book Three)
Sylvia Day

From the moment I first met Gideon Cross, I recognized something in him that I needed. Something I couldn’t resist. I saw the dangerous and damaged soul inside–so much like my own. I was drawn to it. I needed him as surely as I needed my heart to beat.

No one knows how much he risked for me. How much I’d been threatened, or just how dark and desperate the shadow of our pasts would become.


Entwined by our secrets, we tried to defy the odds. We made our own rules and surrendered completely to the exquisite power of possession…






Breathe (Sea Breeze, Book One)
Abbi Glines

Sadie White’s summer job is at the beach, but she won’t be working as a lifeguard. Since her mom is pregnant and refuses to work, Sadie will be taking over as a domestic servant for a wealthy family on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie were normal—if she hadn’t spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house—maybe she’d be excited about working for a rock star. But she’s not.

Even though Sadie isn’t impressed by Jax’s fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax, but he fights his attraction: Relationships never work in his world, and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. Yet as the summer stretches on, Jax’s passion leaves him breathless—and Sadie feels like the only source of oxygen.

Can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? One breath at a time, they’re going to find out…


Shattered Promises (Shattered Promises, Book One) 
Jessica Sorrensen
(free on Amazon at time of posting)

**Mature Content Warning** 17+ for language and sexual content.
(A re-imagining of my young adult book, The Fallen Star, told as a New Adult Paranormal)

For twenty-one year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. She knows nothing about her past and has been haunted by the same monsters in her nightmares for the last few months. Unemotional and numb to life, she feels disconnected from everyone. Until the very first day she cries. After that, nothing in her life is the same.
Her emotions slowly surface and she starts experiencing love, happiness, and anger, feelings she never knew existed. But they leave her confused and she doesn’t know whether to embrace them or run away from them.
Her life only gets more complicated when she meets Alex. Sexy, arrogant, and secretive, Alex can get under Gemma’s skin like no one can. Yet she’s drawn to him by an invisible connection she has no control over. She’s also seen him before. In her nightmares.
Every part of Gemma’s mind is screaming at her to stay away from Alex, but every other part of her is begging to get close to him. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes Alex knows more about her than he originally let on.
As secrets about her past unravel, Gemma’s life becomes threatened. She needs to figure out what’s going on, before she winds up dead. But the only person she can turn to for answers is the one person she isn’t sure she can trust.

The Challenge
Aubrey Bailey
(free on Amazon at time of posting)

At Swan Valley High School in the suburbs of L.A., Kristina Williams is a newly single junior with a dark past. With her best friend, Lena, she must navigate the stormy waters of high school drama in order to find happiness amongst vicious ex-boyfriends, pestilent rumors, and, of course, school work.

Henry is the new kid at school. Fresh off the plane from England with a girlfriend in tow, Henry must adapt to the American life and overcome obstacles not unlike Kristina’s. When he, too, is betrayed by his significant other, he strives to find a way to move on and escape his past.

Thrown together against their will, Kristina and Henry vow to get back at their exes and date each other. However, they must deal with the consequences of a contrived relationship and the emotions that form from within it.

Will their plan backfire when emotions take control? Will the secrets of Kristina’s dark past surface once again?

One thing is for sure: they will be challenged to take control of their lives. So the real question is, when the challenge is met and the dust settles, will they come out together, or alone?

If I Never Knew You ( If I Never Knew You, Book One)
Aubrey Bailey
(free on Amazon at time of posting)

Madison Summers is an eighteen-year-old high school graduate who, due to her father’s recent departure, is charged with the task of taking care of her mother and little brother, Andy. However, working double shifts at the Wayside Restaurant can barely pay the bills, and having a manipulative boyfriend, Damian, leaves her little time for her to spend with her family.
When she meets Andy’s friend, Orion, at work one day, she can’t help but immediately picture this new friend as her knight in shining armor. She soon falls in love with him behind the back of her controlling and abusive boyfriend. Afraid to leave him for another man, Madison is faced with a very important choice that could change her life forever.
Can she turn her secret life with Orion into her new life?
Will she be able to meet the consequences of betraying Damian?
When Madison’s past collides with her present, everything is doomed to fall to pieces. However, with the help of her brother, can she make it out with everything she’s ever wanted…or will she be left with nothing?

The Rush (Siren Series, Book One)
Rachel Higginson
(free on Amazon at time of posting)


A life not her own—A future already decided.

Every facet of Ivy Pierce’s life is meticulously planned out and plotted. Cynical and jaded by sixteen, Ivy’s only hope is to escape the legacy she was born into.

She has a plan, a carefully thought out, feasible plan. She just has to play by the rules until everything falls into place. Unfortunately as predictable as her life can be, she never sees Ryder Sutton coming. He tumbles into her life unimpressed and untouched by her and the life she lives. He’s an enigma to her. A gorgeous, frustrating, sincere mystery and a complete phenomenon in the ugly world she lives in.

What blooms between them is a fiercely intense attraction that cannot be ignored. Even though they would both be better off without each other—Even if both their lives depend on staying apart.



Pirate Dave and His Randy Adventures 
Robyn Peterman
(free on Amazon)

After all was said and done, the disgusting novella meant to destroy a story stealing New York Time’s best-selling author’s career was successful. Rena Gunderschlict, an accountant with no discernible literary talent, and her band of adorable porno writing grannies came up with the worst piece of literature, (and I use that word loosely), that was ever written. Amazingly enough, it became a cult classic. Who in the hell knew there was an underground need to know and love a Time-Traveling Vampire Warlock with erectile dysfunction and his conjoined lady loves, Laverne and Shirley?
Apparently the need is there and now so is the full version of their story . . .

** Special Note from Author Robyn Peterman **
This is a spoof. A profane romance spoof not meant for anyone under 18. I was threatened lovingly and repeatedly by my readers to write the full version of Pirate Dave. He was born of the need to create a horrific career ending romance novel to destroy a really bad, nasty villainess . . . and Thank you Buddha in a tube top, it worked! I laughed my way through writing this and I hope you will enjoy this small slice of my warped brain. NO, this is not what I normally write, but I certainly had a good time penning it! If you want to read the real romance story, you’ll have to peruse HOW HARD CAN IT BE? You’ll find the first three chapters at the end of the hot mess you’re about to read . . . And now, I give you the career ending novella, (hopefully not mine) otherwise known as PIRATE DAVE AND HIS RANDY ADVENTURES.

Just Remember To Breathe (Thompson Sisters, Book One)
Charles Sheehan-Miles
(free on Amazon at time of posting)

Alex Thompson’s life is following the script. A pre-law student at Columbia University, she’s focused on her grades, her life and her future. The last thing she needs is to reconnect with the boy who broke her heart.

Dylan Paris comes home from Afghanistan severely injured and knows that the one thing he cannot do is drag Alex into the mess he’s made of his life.

When Dylan and Alex are assigned to the same work study program and are forced to work side by side, they have to make new ground rules to keep from killing each other.

Only problem is, they keep breaking the rules.


The first rule is to never, ever talk about how they fell in love.


Collide (Collide, Book One)
Gail McHugh

A missed first encounter…

Colliding with a second chance…

On the heels of graduating college and trying to cope with her mother’s death, Emily Cooper moves to New York City for a fresh start.

While harboring secrets of his own, Dillon Parker takes care of Emily through her grief. Knowing he can’t live without her by his side, he’s sweet, thoughtful, and everything Emily has ever wanted in a man.

Until she meets Gavin Blake—a rich and notorious playboy who is dangerously sexy and charming as hell. Emily tries to deny the instant connection she feels, but Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome is not inclined to let go so easily. Recovering from his own painful past, Gavin will stop at nothing to win Emily over.

This unexpected encounter compels Emily to question her decisions, forcing her to make a choice that will destroy friendships, shatter hearts, and forever change her life.

Faking It (Losing It, Book Two)
Cora Carmack



Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.


Tangled (Tangled, Book One)
Emma Chase


Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?

He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

Second Chance Boyfriend (Drew + Fable, Book Two)
Monica Murphy 

**Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual content and language, mature subject matter**
New Adult Contemporary

Lost. That one single word best describes my life at this very moment. I lost the last games of the season and both my team and my coach blame me. I lost the last two months because I drowned in my own despair like a complete loser. And I lost the only girl who ever mattered because I was afraid being with me would destroy her.

But now I realize how truly lost I am without her. She has become my story…and even though she acts like she’s moved on, I know she still thinks about me just as much as I think about her. She’s beautiful, sweet—and so damn vulnerable, all I want to do is help her. Be there for her.

Love her…

If only I could convince Fable to give me a second chance. Then I wouldn’t feel so lost anymore, and neither would she. We could be found together.

Forever.

Lost And Found (Lost and Found, Book One)
Nicole Williams

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

Unbridled (Unlikely Lovers, Book One)
Cheryl Brooks



When passion is given free rein…
Farrier Travis York has found his dream woman in nurse and horse breeder Miranda Jackson until he spots her wedding ring. He attempts to deny the attraction, but Miranda has already captured his heart.
A widow with an autistic child, Miranda wears her ring as a deterrent to suitors. Although smitten with Travis, she can’t believe the handsome younger man could ever be more than eye candy.
When Travis discovers Miranda’s widowhood, she acknowledges the attraction but still sees the age difference as an obstacle. An intense sexual encounter has Travis hearing wedding bells until a bump on the head leaves Miranda wondering what the hell she missed…






The Bitter End (Golden Crown, Book One)
Rue Volley

Bethany was born into a world of privilege and has never had to want for anything in her life. Her parents gave her everything but the one thing she desired the most...love. When Bethany’s mother dies, her Father becomes even more distant with the immediate replacement of Bethany’s mother by “Miko”, a woman who has no compassion nor interest in Bethany whatsoever.

On her own and living in a penthouse, a lavish gift from her father, Bethany ignores all responsibility as she lives on a weekly allowance her Father is sure to place into her bank account. With too much time on her hands, Bethany is free to pursue other interests such as a young man she never cared for in school named Ryan Blackwood. Ryan is a male escort for hire and has made his living on pleasuring the higher echelons of New York society women, but when he meets Bethany his game is shifted from one of hunter to one of prey and he will soon find out that she is not the easy target he once imagined.

Their torrid love affair is filled with a painful need to harm each other in every way, including the bedroom. Will Bethany finally receive the love she has always desired or will her lineage doom her forever?

“The Bitter End” is book one in the Golden Crown Series, filled with lust, greed, suspense and murder. Sometimes new beginnings lead only to bitter ends.


Pretending He's Mine (Caught Up In Us, Book One)
Lauren Blakely 

Once upon a time in New York City, there was a down-on-his-luck actor named Reeve, who was talented and gorgeous in that dreamy, broody sort of way that makes all the women swoon. But show biz is a rough biz – he lost out on a part in a big film, and now his day job hours have been cut too. What’s a handsome young thing in need of a role to do? Enter Sutton Brenner. She’s sexy and shrewd and the most top-notch casting director there is. She’s this close to landing a coveted gig casting a film based on a best-selling mega-romance novel, but there’s a catch. After one too many transgressions with lovely single ladies, the film’s philandering producer has been put on a short leash by his wife, who’s forbidden him from working with anyone unattached. So the happily single Sutton strikes a pact with Reeve – play the role of her fiancee until she closes the deal, and he’s guaranteed to get an audition for the starring role in the film. But as the two play pretend, the lines between make-believe and matters of the heart start to blur. Especially after that hot night in the balcony of the Broadway theater. And that scorching afternoon in the stacks of the New York Public Library. Who’s playing who? Or is someone else really the director in the secret affair of their lives?

PRETENDING HE’S MINE is a companion book in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling CAUGHT UP IN US series. It can be read before or after CAUGHT UP IN US. You do not need to have read CAUGHT UP IN US to enjoy this story, though characters from CAUGHT UP IN US appear in PRETENDING HE'S MINE.


Inappropriate Thoughts (Victoria Wilde, Book One)
Ian Dalton

The first in a new erotic contemporary romance series, Inappropriate Thoughts is a scorching mix of desire, sex, love and slightly inappropriate comedy.

Jillian Grayson is a disillusioned divorcée and best-selling romance novelist who can't write a chapter without her hunky male heartthrob suffering ED, an STD, or even worse. Brian Nash is a tennis-obsessed, college senior who's unlucky in love and the roommate and best friend of Jillian's son, Rob. When Rob brings Brian home for spring break and he meets the surprisingly young and also tennis passionate Jillian, their shared interest quickly develops into an intense mutual attraction. After nearly giving in to their feelings, they hatch a plan, while under the influence (of something more than just the perfect Miami night), to be friends with "partial" benefits complete with rules to define the boundaries. Will the lonely pair continue with this distinctive relationship, actually explore their desires or will they discover all of it is a really bad idea?

READER ADVISORY:
This story contains content some readers may find objectionable, including explicit sex and language.



Breathless (Blue Fire, Book One)
Scott Prussing 
(free on Amazon at time of posting)

College freshman Leesa Nyland has been fascinated by vampires since she was three years old. That’s when her mom started acting weird, refusing to go outside during the day and insisting the sunlight hurt her skin because she had been bitten by a one-fanged vampire…

But fascinated doesn’t mean Leesa believes—any more than she believes in blue fire, people who live for centuries, and kisses that can kill. When her beloved older brother suddenly disappears, she is forced to confront all these and more.

Because of Low (Sea Breeze, Book Two)
Abbi Glines
audio book

It’s steamy in the Gulf town of Sea Breeze. Physical attraction is the only way to beat the heat in this start to a series from bestselling, previously self-published author Abbi Glines.

Playboy Cage owns the apartment, and he hosts a revolving door of people, in and out, at all times. Most of them are long-legged hot girls who are never there more than a night or two. When Cage’s new roommate, Marcus, enters the picture, he’s just looking to nurse a broken heart. But there’s one particular semi-frequent regular who catches his eye.

Willow—“Low”—is the one Cage wants to marry. But the two of them are night and day, and Marcus can’t see how Low puts up with all of Cage’s womanizing. What she really needs is a real man....like good-looking and sensible Marcus. But that’s going to get real complicated and real messy—real fast.

Down London Road (On Dublin Street, Book Two)
Samantha Young

Johanna Walker is used to taking charge. But she’s about to meet someone who will make her lose control....

It has always been up to Johanna to care for her family, particularly her younger brother, Cole. With an absent father and a useless mother, she’s been making decisions based on what’s best for Cole for as long as she can remember. She even determines what men to date by how much they can provide for her brother and her, not on whatever sparks may—or may not—fly.

But with Cameron MacCabe, the attraction is undeniable. The sexy new bartender at work gives her butterflies every time she looks at him. And for once, Jo is tempted to put her needs first. Cam is just as obsessed with getting to know Jo, but her walls are too solid to let him get close enough to even try.

Then Cam moves into the flat below Jo’s, and their blistering connection becomes impossible to ignore. Especially since Cam is determined to uncover all of Jo’s secrets …even if it means taking apart her defenses piece by piece.




Bagged

At RAGT, I received the following books: 

From NetGalley:

Upcoming Reviews

Sleeping with the Entity Cat Devon

Breathe ~ Abbi Glines

Tangled ~ Emma Chase

Entwined With You ~ Sylvia Day 

Not Until You ~ Roni Loren