BOOK REVIEW ~ WESTERN TIES: COMPASS BROTHERS BY MARI CARR AND JAYNE RYLON

Title: Western Ties  (Compass Brothers, Book Four)

Author: Mari Carr & Jayne Rylon

Release Date: March 6, 2012

Autographed paperback received from author

How strong are the ties that bind?

Leah Hollister’s sex life needs a swift kick in the pants. Small-town Compton Pass, though, isn’t the place to explore her need for bondage. When she gets an invitation to a BDSM party out in LA, she wastes no time booking a flight. Her plan to play anonymously is shot to hell when she runs into high-school crush Sawyer Compton—and he lays immediate claim to her.

Sawyer Compton commands total control, in and out of the bedroom. He never thought Leah could handle his darker urges, but one look at the white bracelet that marks her as a sub ripe for the picking, and he knows exactly how this night is going to end. With Leah in his bed.

Leah didn’t expect to enjoy the comfort Sawyer’s familiarity brings, even as his touch takes her to unimaginable heights of pleasure. When bad news from home sends him reeling, she’s more than prepared to offer him anything he needs: her body, her friendship. Even her heart—if Sawyer can loosen the reins over his own to accept her love.

Warning: Invest in tissues. Lots and lots of tissues. Between spicy, set-the-sheets-on-fire bondage romps and the last Compass brother coming home, you'll need them.

Book Review

I am trying to recover from a sob fest after reading Western Ties. Besides being an extremely hot erotic read, Western Ties sucker punches you in your core.  

Sawyer and Leah are a passionate couple, no doubt. Sawyer has always known his sexual tastes have been on the bit on the extreme side. He needs that control, that dominance, over his lovers and knows how to bring a woman begging for release. When he finds his old friend, Leah, at a BDSM party in LA, his dominant side wins out--He will have her. There is simply no other choice. 

Leah has always felt something had been missing with her sex life. Despite dating a few losers in the past, the big "O" remained  elusive. Her mind has always been busy taking over during sex, leaving her unfulfilled. When she hears about a weekend play party from a friend, she takes a flight out to LA, hoping to find a man to give her what she's been missing. Instead, she finds Sawyer, her friend from her home town and the man she secretly crushed on as a teen. 

One night of explosive sex leaves Sawyer wanting more. He doesn't want their connection to end, but feels he has nothing else to offer Leah except sex. But when Sawyer learns that his father is dying, everything changes as they both return to Compton Pass. 

Now back to how Western Ties hits you where you feel it:

The entire Compton family is faced with the looming death of their father, J.D. A man who is admired by the entire town. A man who loved fiercely, lived with no regrets, and raised his sons to be great men. When J.D. succumbs to pancreatic cancer, the family reach out to each other to remember the good times, to support each other--and ultimately, to heal. 

There is a delicate balance of smoldering sexual connection between Leah and Sawyer and a true friendship. I believe in order to have an everlasting kind of love, you need to truly care and like the person  you are with. Rylon and Carr show this throughout the book, giving the reader more than just smoking hot sexy times. 

Both Sawyer and Leah grew up together and developed a friendship over time. They have always been close, but just took different paths in their lives. That chance meeting in L.A. has them reconnecting and discovering things about the other they never knew.

Sawyer comes to realize that the woman he has needed in his life has always been there hiding in the shadows. He sees the girl he always thought as different as someone he cannot live without. He just doesn't think he can be the man that Leah needs.

Leah embraces her sexual nature and freedom she never experienced with past lovers, but realizes that she needs more from Sawyer. A perfect balance of lust and love, sex and friendship, commitment and constancy. Can Sawyer be the man she needs? 

I love how these two individuals come together, inside and outside the bedroom. Rylon and Carr do a superb job of making Western Ties a complex, yet fulfilling story with all the bells and whistles: romance, family ties, loss and grief.

I highly advise a box or four of Kleenex handy as you read this emotionally charged read. You'll need it.  

BLOG TOUR PROMO ~ ROXY BURROUGHS -- A STRANGER'S KISS

~ PRESENTED BY BEWITCHING BOOK TOURS ~

A Stranger’s Kiss

By Roxy Burroughs
Published by: Baucis & Philemon w/ Bandit Creek Books

Publish Date: February 7, 2012

Genre: Romantic suspense/ novella

Series: Passionate Strangers/Bandit Creek #2


Source: E-copy provided for review by Bewitching  Book Tours



 

BLURB:

SAM HUTCHINSON was once motivated by power and money. But after his son's murder, he alternates between losing himself in a bottle of scotch and researching James Ryan Morley, the still-at-large killer of the boy Sam never had time for in life. Broken and desperate, Sam traces Morley’s roots to Bandit Creek, Montana and an addict who once sheltered him.

There, against a serene mountain backdrop, he finds the woman’s resourceful daughter, AMY TESHER, and her eleven-year-old child, Renee. Lies are Amy’s camouflage—her age, her name, even the identity of her child’s father—all fabricated to escape the secrets of her past.

Unaware of Sam’s real mission, she takes him into her boarding house. Just as Morley returns to take possession of Amy...and her daughter.

Link to purchase book at Amazon.

Click here to read excerpt.

BOOK REVIEW ~ SHAMELESS BY CHERYL DOUGLAS

I'd like to welcome Cheryl Douglas to Where's My Muse today.  She will be taking over the reins for a bit and talking about an author makes a connection to the reader with his or her book. 

Welcome, Cheryl!  Don't mind the mess **busily brushes off pile of clean clothes on chair.** I had to cancel my maid, lol. Make yourself at home and I'll make a fresh pot of coffee.

Topic: Making a Connection

     Although I don’t watch a lot of TV, American Idol is one show I rarely miss. As I watched it last night, I was struck by the fact that the judges are often trying to convey the same message to the performers, focus on making a connection with the audience. It’s that connection that separates great singers, who fail to capture the audience, from artists who enjoy a long and successful career in the highly competitive music business.

     As I listened to that message for the umpteenth time, it occurred to me that writers are trying to do the same thing when we write a book. We are trying to develop characters that will connect with our readers. As an avid reader, I know within the first few pages of a book whether I am going to like a character or not. Sometimes, it’s not something I can define in words; it’s simply a sense or a feeling, kind of like meeting a new person for the first time. I may not have a justifiable reason for disliking someone, but we may not forge an immediate connection and will rarely go on to have a lasting friendship or relationship.

     I usually ‘connect’ with a certain type of character in a book; therefore, I gravitate towards books with qualities I tend to like. For example, I love alpha males, and weak-willed, submissive men will never hold my interest. The heroines in the books I choose may be sexually submissive, but they have to be strong-willed women with clear-cut reasons for making the choices they do. I don’t like weak characters who rely on others to tell them how they should think or feel and I quickly lose respect for characters without morals and values. Once I lose interest, I’m no longer invested in the outcome of the story.

     When I sit down to outline a new book, I’m developing characters that I connect with because I know if I don’t care about a character, I can’t expect my readers to care. I want to get to know my characters on an intimate level. What motivates their actions, and what happened in their past to influence their present? Are they kind and gentle souls, or are they filled with rage, and resentment? In my experience, those characters with the most baggage are often the ones readers tend to connect with the most. It’s almost as though their pain bleeds onto the page through the author’s words.

     For example, the first book in the Nashville Nights series, Shameless, had a hero, Trey Turner, who was wrestling his demons and trying to make amends for his past mistakes. He wasn’t perfect, far from it; from the feedback that I was received from readers about him was compelling. They were totally immersed in his journey because they connected with him. They felt his pain, wanted to see him beat his demons, and come out a better and stronger man on the other side of his journey. In my mind, that just proves that we connect with characters in a book for different reasons.

     My readers may not have shared his personal challenges with alcoholism, divorce, and the loss of a child, but everyone’s experienced with the lure of the forbidden, the loss of their first love, and the struggle of trying to get through another day when it feels like the world is against you. That is real life. As readers, we often use books to escape our reality for a while, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to feel the pain of our heroes and heroines, and share their happiness when they finally reach their ultimate destination. When we’re so entrenched in a story that we don’t want to put it down, that’s how we know we’ve made a real connection.

     I’ll share a quote about Shameless from a reviewer at read2review.com to demonstrate my point about a reader who made a connection with Trey Turner in Shameless:

“There were many times throughout this book where I was actually overcome with emotion, it made me cry and smile and sometimes gasp or laugh out loud; a piece of art that couldn’t have come at a better time!”
 

     As a writer, I was obviously humbled by the praise, and its comments like this that remind me how important it is to make that connection with the reader. If I’m not crying, smiling, gasping, or laughing out loud when I’m writing a book, it’s time for me to start over because I know I’ve missed my mark.

Happy reading!

Title: Fearless ( Nashville Nights, Book Two)

Author: Cheryl Douglas

Release Date: April 2012

eformat 

Approximate Word Count: 67, 042

Lexi Brooks has overcome adversity to build a successful real estate business that will enable her live life on her terms. The life she envisions includes travel, fun, and excitement, not marriage, kids or commitment. But will Trey’s sexy bodyguard throw a wrench into her plans?

Being a cop taught Josh Cooper to take calculated risks, but he’s tired of living with the daily threat of danger. He’s ready to settle down with someone who wants to be a step-mother to his two teenage sons. Too bad Lexi isn’t that woman. She’s smart, sexy, and head-strong, and they’re totally in sync in the bedroom, but she isn’t willing to ‘settle’ for a life of domestic bliss. Or is she?

Links to purchase books:

Amazon /  All Romance 

 

Title : Shameless ( Nashville Nights, Book One)

Author: Cheryl Douglas

Publisher: Amazon Digital Svcs.

eFormat: 187 pages

Release Date – February 2012

Trey Turner may be topping the country music charts but his life has been going downhill since his wife left him five years ago. He’s desperate to make amends for the mistakes he’s made and convince Sierra their love deserves a second chance.

Sierra Brooks is happy for the first time since her divorce. She has a career she loves and a fiancé who loves her.

Unfortunately, her fiancé isn’t the only man professing his love. He may be able to offer her safety and security but will she decide to risk everything for another chance with the man who broke her heart?

Links to purchase:

Amazon / All Romance

About the Author:

     It took me thirty-seven years to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought I'd found my calling. In fact, I worked as a nutritionist for twelve years before I finally admitted to myself that while I enjoyed my work, I couldn't imagine doing it for the next thirty years.

     My sub-conscious knew that I wanted to be a writer long before the conscious part of my mind decided to get with the program. While my sub-conscious was hard at work creating character profiles, plots and story lines, my conscious mind was telling me it was crazy to give up a successful business on the off-chance one of my manuscripts might rise to the top of someone's never-ending slush pile. 

     After years of listening to that negative voice, I was finally ready to stop making excuses, face the fear and follow my dream of becoming a full-time writer, no matter the outcome. I'm so thankful I did.

     I love bringing my characters to life and I am so grateful to have readers who love those characters as much as I do.

     When I take a break from writing it's to spend time with my husband (a.k.a. my real life hero), my son, and my writing partner, Tia, a spirited Havanese who enjoys tapping her paw on my keyboard whenever I need a little comic relief.

Click here to visit Cheryl at her website.

 

Book Review:  Shameless  

Sometimes, I need a story with a little heartache in it. Something that isn't all fluff and fru-fru. 

Shameless is that kind of story. 

Country music star Trey Turner has lost the woman that he loves-Sierra Brooks--and their marriage is over. He loses himself in the bottom of countless bottles, cast adrift in a sea of grief over the death of their daughter. And now, he no longer has the words to write the songs that has made him a music legend. 

Sierra Brooks struggles to put the pieces of her life together after her failed marriage.  After losing everything, she deserves a little bit of happiness without another risk to her fragile heart. Involved with an older man, she hopes to find that little piece of happiness. But now she is pushed together with the one man who broke her heart. 

Can you ever really rekindle a love that has so many painful memories? So much grief? And oodles of other problems that seem so insurmountable?

This story is harsh-no candy coating here folks. Alcoholism, grief, death, and not-so-pretty-secrets. 

But I think that Cheryl Douglas does a great job of showing real characters, real feelings, and presents it in an in-your-face kind of way that bodes the characters and their story very well. 

Sometimes life ain't pretty and perfect-but you can still get your happy ending. 

 

4 Horny Devils