Guest Review: When I'm With You by Beth Kery

I first want to say that this was my first time reading a serial novel. Since I had the entire thing and was able to move right through it like it was an entire novel the experience wasn’t too bad; however, I feel that if I had to go out and purchase each individual part and wait for each to be released I would probably pass up this kind of book altogether. With that being said I wasn’t very impressed with this novel.

It had a very strong resemblance to 50 Shades of Grey but with French characters instead. Lucien Lenault is a self-made billionaire from his many hotels and restaurants. He has a very large inheritance but refuses to touch it as his father is in prison for embezzlement. In the beginning Lucien is walking into his restaurant on a day the place is closed when he hears voices coming from the bar area and immediately he thinks he is being robbed. Upon going further into his restaurant he sees the new chef he hired with a woman and they are drinking. Outraged with his employee he makes himself known and demands to know what is going on when he notices the woman is none other than Elise Martin, a girl from his past.

Elise just moved to Chicago from Paris trying to get away from the heiress lifestyle she led and become a serious chef. To finish her culinary education she has to serve under an accomplished chef sort of like an apprenticeship. Her school set her up with Mario the new chef of Fusion which she later finds out is owned by Lucien, the man she had a crush on her entire life.

Lucien quickly fires Mario and Elise forces her way into Lucien’s life and steps up as the interim chef until he can find a replacement. Once he finds a new chef Elise stays on to complete her training and enters into a sexual arrangement with Lucien. I didn’t find myself connecting to either Elise or Lucien and that in turn didn’t help me connect to the book. Some books can suck you in and make you feel like you are a part of the story as opposed to reading it and I just didn’t feel that.

The ending felt pretty abrupt to me and didn’t really answer the major question of Lucien’s mother. I feel like that part of the story didn’t get closure and felt like it was pointless to even include that if it was going to be seen to the end. Overall I would recommend this to someone who is looking for something similar to 50 Shades of Grey but with not as in-depth of a story and more of a fast moving novel.

**ARC provided by publisher**

My Favorite Book Boyfriend with Jenn LeBlanc and Giveaway

Colorado. Canon. Curls. CJs. Chuck Norris.

Born and raised in a household of other people’s children in this beautiful state —very nearly with a camera in hand— she never left. She started her own family, got used to the curls, went to college, built a CJ, started a business, and totally beat the daylights out of Chuck Norris, all with a camera in hand. Spending her days in parenting chat rooms she got highly adept with one-handed typing and she can still type just about as fast with one hand as she can with two. It’s a great talent to have when engrossed in a scene and in need of a hit of caffeine. Once she finished her first novel she quickly realized: She was born a photographer.

From the realization that someone ELSE would be shooting the cover of HER book her control freak took over. What started as an easy cover shoot ballooned into this completely new kind of media, designed specifically for digital book readers.

She lives and thrives off chaos and the constant flow of the creative process. She wears shorts and flip-flops year-round—much to the chagrin of her friends and family— and she is currently working on the illustrations for her second novel. Her first serial novel THE RAKE AND THE RECLUSE is doing its own Chuck Norris impersonation with the time travel charts on Amazon.

Places to find Jenn: 

| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Illustrated Romance | 

ARC Review: Protecting What's His by Tessa Bailey

I won't lie, I wasn't really all that excited to start this book. I am so glad that I did though. I adored this book from beginning to end. It was so good and the chemistry between Derek and Ginger was explosive. So hot. I definitely can't wait to read more from this author.

Ginger has always wanted more for herself and her baby sister. Tired of living in the gutter with her drug addict mother she wants to get as far away from Nashville as she can. When she finds $50,000 stashed in her mothers purse, she knows this is the opportunity she's been looking for and that it's just too good to pass up. With the money and her sister in tow, they head to Chicago to start their lives over.

Derek is tired, hungover and having a bad day. He really isn't in the mood to deal with his noisy new neighbors but a person can take only so much before they snap. And snap he does, though Ginger and her sister aren't phased in the least by Derek's outburst. They just continue to go about their business of moving in to their new apartment.

Derek tries to stay annoyed with the girls but the more time he spends around Ginger, the more he realizes just how much he enjoys ruffling her feathers. There is a lot of back and forth banter between the two and lots of dirty talk. Derek is determined to win over Ginger. As for Ginger, she's attracted to Derek but since she's technically on the run for stealing the money from her mother she knows she should stay away from Derek. After a few weeks of the back and forth the two finally give into their attraction and things really heat up. The chemistry between the two is explosive and Derek is so freaking sexy. He's just such an alpha and his dirty talk really worked for me.

I really liked this story though I did have some issues with the way things went down towards the end of the book. Throughout the whole story Ginger is fierce and independent but all of sudden at the end it she looses some of her spark. She makes some stupid choices that just didn't seem to fit with everything we were shown previously.

All in all, I still found this book highly enjoyable and I can't wait to read more from this author.


**ARC provided by publisher**

Purchase: | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo |

My Favorite Book Boyfriend with Manda Collins and Giveaway

Manda Collins spent her teen years wishing she’d been born a couple of centuries earlier, preferably in the English countryside. Time travel being what it is, she resigned herself to life with electricity and indoor plumbing, and read lots of books. An affinity for books led to a graduate degree in English, followed by another in Librarianship. By day, she works as an academic librarian at a small liberal arts college, where she teaches college students how to navigate the tangled world of academic research. A native of coastal Alabama, Manda lives in the house her mother grew up in with three cats, sometimes a dog, sometimes her sister, and more books than strictly necessary.

Places to find Manda:

| Site | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

My Favorite Book Boyfriend with Sophie Barnes and Giveaway

Born in Denmark, Sophie has spent her youth traveling with her parents to wonderful places all around the world. She’s lived in five different countries, on three different continents, and speaks Danish, English, French, Spanish and Romanian.

She has studied design in Paris and New York and has a bachelor’s degree from Parson’s School of design, but most impressive of all – she’s been married to the same man three times, in three different countries and in three different dresses.

While living in Africa, Sophie turned to her lifelong passion – writing.

When she’s not busy, dreaming up her next romance novel, Sophie enjoys spending time with her family, swimming, cooking, gardening, watching romantic comedies and, of course, reading. She currently lives on the East Coast.

Places to find Sophie:

| Site | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |