Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1) by Jus Accardo

Published: Dec 30th, 2013

Publisher: Embrace (Entangled Publishing)

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange of an honest review

Hell is looking for a way to break loose…

ADD TO GOODREADS

I... Ok give me a sec to gather my thoughts... OMG Everytime I open a new Jus Accardo book I don't think she can get any better but she does and each character is unique and awesome like the last one. And her boys are sexy as hell! And Jax is actually from hell... Kinda... 

Jax is a descendant from Cain, aka the first murderer so thanks to his sin, Jax has a demon shring his body. And making him do lots of... Unpleasent things. To protect those he loves from himself, Jax goes away but his uncle is dying so what was supposed to be a short goodbye visit turns into chaos.

Jax, just as Cain wants to murder his twin brother, Chase, aka golden boy of town. So of course things in the Flynn house get a bit tense... 

Enter Sam. The girl next door with an attitude, a dark past and an undying love for Jax. Also, someone wants to kill her...

I just love love love this book. The story gets you right from the start. The characters all have their own voice and are really easy to connect. Having dual POV is easy to understand both side of the arguments and the sexual tension rivals the temperature in hell.

Sam is everything Jax wants, unfortunately his Demon isn't so keen on happy feelings... 

I did love the dynamic between the 3 of them. Sam and Jax have a history, which makes the entire story so believe when they can help the attraction between them. Is not insta love, is real love that never goes away.

The way Jax and Azirak (the demon) act and interact is so captivating. The relationship between them is simbiotic, of hate and in a way they are one and the same.

I can totally say that I never saw that twist at the end coming! The story is fast paced, going from scorching to freezing in the characters mood to heartbreaking and I'm-sitting-at-the-edge-of-my-seat moments. I couldn't put it down. 

Jax has made it HIGH in my book boyfriend list. Top 10 high. He's caring but he defines bad boy. And his demonic side? Yeah, I love him too. Call me crazy, I don't care. 

The hot scenes? Were REALLY hot. All that lust floating around... 

This is the first time I read a story of this kind, miss Accardo is taking me by surprise lately with her plots but I totally love it. After all her great books I'll probably grab anything with her name on it.

Ruined is a perfect read to finish 2013 or start the new year! 

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Today we have to reviews for you: Return to Sender and Return to You, parts 2 and 3 of the Letter to Nowhere series by the awesome Julie Cross.

If you haven't read the first book, you should A) Get your copy now and B) read our review as to why here , annddd C) don't read after this if you don't want spoilers

Return To Sender (Letters to Nowhere #2)

If only summer could last forever…

Karen and Jordan might be out in the open with their relationship, but that doesn't make it any easier for them to face events looming in the future. Like Jordan leaving for college halfway across the country. Or Karen's win at a big international gymnastics competition setting the bar high for her future and adding pressure like she's never experienced before. 

But when Nina Jones (aka-US Gymnastics Dictator), makes plans for Karen and teammate Stevie to train at a gymnastics camp for a month—the same camp where Jordan coaches—romantic summer interludes replace their fears of being apart. Both Jordan and Karen know that when fall comes, some very tough decisions will have to be made, but for now, it’s stolen kisses, racing hearts, and whispered words.

Now, Letters to Nowhere is a full lengh novel, imagine my shock when I got to the end of book 2 and saw that it's short! I was like, where's the rest of my book?!

However, it is as emotional and awesome as the first.

Karen is learning to deal with her parents death and learning to be a "normal" teenager with a boyfriend now that she and Jordan are together.

We see Karen grow up in some ways. She's dealing with more presure from competition and at the same time she has another thing to worry about...

Karen and Jordan are heading to camp and there is the ex... But Julie is a master at writing teenage drama without over doing it, so we see some problems, we go back to tears and Jordan is always there to make it better...

Jordan is probably one of my favourite book boyfriends of all time. He has a wild side but he's super caring. He gets Karen in a way not much people do and he is willing to do anything he can to help her.

Plus he's dreamy... And geeky and totally hot... I could go all day about him hehe

We also see a new character... TJ, he's... Something else. Another gimnast with a dark and mysterious past and a not very gentle way of dealing with people he makes an interesting addition to the story while most of our known characters aren't present

I can't tell you how much I liked going back to these characters. I love them. They make laugh and cry and worry. I feel in love with them, I understand their fears and dreams and moving on with their story feels great!

Return To You (Letters To Nowhere #3) by Julie Cross

How many dreams can you chase at once?

Even with bad boy, TJ, disrupting their morning workouts, Karen and Stevie’s daily battles with each other are sure to bring both of them closer to a national title at next month’s championships. It’s the kind of feud that creates winning results. 

Until a fall from the uneven bars shakes Karen’s rock-solid confidence. Not only does she balk every time she so much as attempts a routine, she’s also facing all this without much support from Jordan. After receiving some bad news, Jordan’s reluctance to listen to reason causes Karen so much frustration she begins to avoid him, needing space to deal with her own issues. He needs someone to force him to make the right choice, he needs his dad to intervene and Karen knows this, but is torn between her loyalty to Jordan and her concern for her coach’s son. Even though both paths lead to the same person—Jordan—it feels like she’s choosing between two different people.

And then there’s the growing tension between TJ and Stevie. They’re obviously on the verge of either ripping each other’s heads off or ripping each other’s clothes off. It’s hard for either Jordan or Karen to tell where those two are headed. Tension is building from every possible outlet and there’s bound to be an explosion of some kind in the very near future.

I'm very glad I had both books to read at once... This short stories are kinda well, short and they end so abruptly that I was going to go insane.. Kinda like right now with number 3. 

This one picks up right after #2. 

Jordan is getting si ker while Karen is having some issues with her rutines and none is ready to talk about it.

TJ is being TJ so sometimes he helps... Sometimes not much!

I particulary enjoyed, in a way that made me sad, that Jordan and Karen are having some problems. 

He was always there for her and I guess that was his way of dealing with his own problems but now that Karen wants to help him things aren't so easy.

The connection between them though keeps getting stronger and reading about how their relationship develops is great. 

They are so comfortable with each other in a way and Karen gets so awkward sometimes I just love the whole experience.

Another thing I love is that this stories are told in dual POV so we get to be inside of Jordan's head!!

I really can't wait to see what happens next and more than anything, see what happens with Jordan. Julie said she just got a system for releasing this stories so I'll let you know when the next ones are out and ready! 

Find Your Ever After in Under An Hour

Ever After features paranormal, sci-fi, and horror novellas, all with the romance you've come to love from Entangled--just in a shorter format. Make sure to like their new Facebook Page and follow them on Twitter.

Christmas Past by Susanna Fraser

Time-traveling PhD student Sydney Dahlquist’s first mission sounded simple enough—spend two weeks in December 1810 collecting blood samples from the sick and wounded of Wellington’s army, then go home to modern-day Seattle and Christmas with her family. But when her time machine breaks, stranding her in the past, she must decide whether to sacrifice herself to protect the timeline or to build a new life—and embrace a new love—two centuries before her time.

Rifle captain Miles Griffin has been fascinated by the tall, beautiful "Mrs. Sydney" from the day he met her caring for wounded soldiers. When he stumbles upon her time travel secret on Christmas Eve, he vows to do whatever it takes to seduce her into making her home in his present—by his side.

Amazon      Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

Some Like it Sinful by Robbie Terman
Perfect Recipe #2

Their attraction is sinfully delicious…

A struggling business and one act of vandalism may have brought them together, but bakery owner Chloe Nelson and professional hockey player Griffin Lange get along like chocolate and pickles. Chloe needs the famous (and famously unattached) Griffin to attract people to her pastries, and Griffin needs the curvaceous and fiery Chloe to keep him out of trouble. A fake relationship to keep the media interested seems like the perfect plan.

But when temptation throws them into bed together, a new plan arises. Why not make the fake real? Griffin’s winning every home game, and Chloe’s business has never been better. Both know it’s only physical—and only temporary. But can they drop their defenses for love, even if it means getting a little bit sinful?

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Goodreads

Wild Card by Jamie Wyman

It was bad enough that gods gambled with human souls, but Catherine Sharp’s soul just had to be won by the Greek goddess of Discord, Eris. As if working a dead-end tech support job didn’t suck the life out of her as it was. Now, Cat finds herself performing random tasks for the goddess in her free time.

But when Coyote, the Native American trickster himself, claims to have won her own soul in Mayhem's weekly poker game, Cat wants in on the action. With five sneaky gods upping the ante, Cat needs to find a way to collect the winning chips that could save her soul.

Marius, a handsome yet irritating satyr with his own debt to Eris, might finally come in handy for something. If they play their cards right and work together, Cat and Marius may just get their freedom back. If they don't kill each other or fall in love first.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Goodreads

A hit and run, a deserted country road—a parent's worst nightmare.

On a warm fall morning in Gardiner, Washington, Richard and Maggie celebrate happy couple Sam and Marcie's return. What happens next changes their lives forever: After a hit and run on a deserted country road, Richard and Maggie suffer a parent's worst nightmare.

Now, a year later, Maggie McCafferty struggles to put her life back together ... hiding her pain with outrageous behavior and a secret she’s unwilling to share until her friends step in and her strong-willed husband sets out to bring her home the only way he knows how. Just as Maggie begins to trust again, Dan McKenzie calls after disappearing for over a year. But now he’s back, and instead of coming clean with the truth of their involvement, Richard digs himself in deeper, with mounting debts and a partner who refuses to buy him out—secrets shared only with Dan. However, one night, a mysterious 911 caller witnesses a fight and sees Richard shooting Dan. When the police arrive at the deserted construction site, the only evidence of a crime is a pool of blood and a surveillance video.

Under mounting pressure from the police, Richard is arrested and interrogated—but fiery, secretive Richard is adamant he was home all night. In a bizarre twist of fate, Sam, Marcie, and Diane work against the clock and wonder how well they really know their evasive friend. With Maggie by his side, Richard stands by his innocence. The trouble is, if Richard didn’t do it, where is Dan? And who is the mysterious 911 caller?

2012 was an amazing year in the publishing world for me, and it started with The Forgotten Child, which landed on the Amazon bestseller list for western romance and romance series. 2013 has seen me posted in the top 100 authors on Amazon for romantic suspense, mystery/thrillers, and police procedurals.

Where did it all begin? In 2008, I published my first novel, The Captain’s Lady, a contemporary military romance, through The Wild Rose Press. I’ve since received the rights back from my publisher, and I rewrote the book and republished it with a brand new title, Saved.

I write edgy romantic suspense (Walk the Right Road Series), western romance (Finding Love ~ The Outsider Series), and young adult mystery, and I warn my readers to expect the unexpected. I’m a mother of three children and we live on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. I encourage you to contact me by email; I do answer every email I receive.

Stay tuned. There is more to come from the Walk the Right Road Series and Finding Love ~ The Outsider Series, as well as a brand new western romance series coming later this fall, The One.

And to my readers and all of you who have shared my stories with your family and friends, a big, heartfelt thank-you.

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From the New York Times & USA Today bestselling author who brought you the Nice Girl to Love trilogy, comes a Nice GUY to Love spin-off…

Brian Sullivan has been in love twice in his lifetime.  He lost his first love to early-onset Huntington’s, and he lost the other more recently…to his brother.  And somehow, his heart has managed to heal itself after both.  Amazingly, without therapy. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t gotten more wary along the way, however. In fact, he’s been thinking lately that maybe his brother’s now retired nothing-but-flings rule isn’t such a bad idea. Unfortunately, being the nice guy poster boy and all, Brian isn’t exactly versed in the fine art of flings.  So he looks to the outrageously ‘unique,’ provokingly button-pushing Tessa Daniels for a crash course.

There’s absolutely no way he’s falling in love with this one…right?

Tessa has no idea what she was thinking telling Brian that she was some sort of fling expert. She’s never been flung before and she sure as heck doesn’t know where or how to begin flinging a guy like Brian.  It was a temporary lapse in sanity, really—no doubt because of the can’t-help-but-fall-for-him brain fuzz that hits her whenever he’s around.  Not only does the man have her being more herself than she’s ever been in her life, but he’s the only person she knows who seems to have as many demons and skeletons in the closet as she does.  What’s more, he’s got her thinking of the one thing she stopped letting herself even hope for years ago.

A happily ever after.

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Violet Duke is a former professor of English Education who is ecstatic to now be on the other side of the page writing wickedly fun contemporary romance novels. When she's not arguing with her story characters or feeding her book-a-day reading addiction, she enjoys tackling reno projects with her power tools while trying pretty much anything without reading the directions first and cooking 'special edition' dishes that laugh in the face of recipes. Violet lives in Hawai'i with her two cute kids and similarly adorable husband.