The Book Junkie's Reads . . .: Avon Impusle

One Snowy Night
Heartbreaker Bay, #2.5

by Jill Shalvis

Releasing November 8^th 2016
Avon Impulse

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Heartbreaker Bay with a fun and festive holiday novella!

From The Book Junkie Reads . . . One Snowy Night (Heartbreaker Bay, #2.5) . . .

This was my first read in the Heartbreaker Bay series and I have to say that it got me clamoring to read the remaining books. I enjoy reading Jill Shalvis books. They bring a smile and warmth when enjoying them. Off track again. I did enjoying getting to know Rory, Max and Carl.

There was a history there between Rory and Max. The slow connection that had been taking place over a course of time was brought to it point with the trip back home. They both needed to hash out old wounds. The drive back home and in the midst of a storm was the best thing to happen for them as a couple. This may have come across as insta love for some but think about the time that they have shared and lost.

I have not doubts this was a great addition to the Heartbreaker Bay series. Jill brings us a beautiful holiday novella allowing us to believe in a second chance at making a better impression.

**This ARC was provided via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.**

Heartbreaker Bay series:

Sweet Little Lies – Heartbreaker Bay, #1

The Trouble with Mistletoe – Heartbreaker Bay, #2

One Snowy Night – Heartbreaker Bay, #2.5

Accidentally on Purpose – Heartbreaker Bay, #3

Blurb
It’s Christmas Eve and Rory Andrews is desperate to get home to the family she hasn’t seen in years. Problem is, her only ride to Lake Tahoe comes in the form of the annoyingly handsome Max Stranton, and his big, goofy, lovable dog Carl.

Hours stuck in a truck with the dead sexy Max sounds like a fate worse than death (not), but Rory’s out of options. She’s had a crush on Max since high school and she knows he’s attracted to her, too. But they have history… and Max is the only one who knows why it went south.

They’ve done a good job of ignoring their chemistry so far, but a long road trip in a massive blizzard might be just what they need to face their past… and one steamy, snowy night is all it takes to bring Max and Rory together at last.

Goodreads Link:
Goodreads Series Link:

Buy Links:

Amazon | B & N | Google | iTunes | Kobo

Christmas Eve had the nerve to show up just like it did every year: way too quickly and with ridiculous fanfare.

The nerve.

Rory Andrews stood in the courtyard of the Pacific Pier Building in San Francisco, surrounded by sparkly holiday lights and enough garlands to give the place its own ozone, and told herself things could be worse.

She just wasn’t sure how.

It was the unknown, she decided. Because this year, unlike the past six, she’d be spending Christmas with her family, a thought that caused a swarm of butterflies to take flight in her belly.

Not an uncommon feeling since she’d turned twenty-three a few months back and decided it was time to become a person she could be proud of if it killed her. And given the guy leaning against one of the lamp poles clearly waiting for her, arms crossed, frown in place, it just might.

Max Stranton. At his side sat Carl, his huge, eternally hungry, adorable Doberman.

“No,” she said, not to Carl but to Carl’s owner. Who was not lovable. “No way.”

As always when their gazes locked, Max’s was a disconcerting mix of heat and . . . something else that she couldn’t quite figure out, as he was good at hiding when he wanted to be. She never quite knew how to take the heat because it seemed reluctant. He was attracted to her but didn’t want to be.

Ditto. He made her knees wobble. And also a couple of other inner reactions that shouldn’t be happening in public.

“Merry Christmas to you too, Rory,” he said, and damn. It wasn’t just his eyes. His voice was rough and sexy, and for that matter, so was the rest of him.

He worked for an investigations and security firm in the building. Basically he and the rest of his team were fixers and finders for hire. To say that Max was good at his job was an understatement. He stood there looking like sex on a stick with a duffle bag slung over a broad shoulder, his dark hair two weeks past needing a cut, and the icy wind of an incoming storm plastering his clothes to a body that could be registered as a lethal weapon.

“What are you doing here?” she asked calmly even if her heart was anything but, pounding all the way up to her throat and ears because she knew. She knew exactly why he was here. “I don’t need a ride home.”

A flash of wry humor slid in with all that sizzling heat. “Because you’d rather take two buses and a train than get into my truck with me?” he asked.

Well yes, actually.

Goodreads Link:
Goodreads Series Link:

Buy Links:

Amazon | B & N | Google | iTunes | Kobo

Author Info

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras with her family and far too many assorted quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill's latest, SWEET LITTLE LIES on shelves and e-readers now, and get all her bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold.

Visit Jill's website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

Author Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Rafflecopter Giveaway

Hosted by

Link to Follow Tour:

Presented by

When a Marquess Loves a Woman
Season's Original, #3

by Vivienne Lorret

Released October 4^th 2016
Avon Impulse

From The Book Junkie Reads . . . When a Marrquess Loves a Woman (Season’s Original, #3) . . .

This Marquess had to wait but he got his Lady or could it be that the Lady got her man.

I have to admit that the prologue got me riled up. I wanted to skewer Juliet. I was heartbroken for Max. Five years later, things have a way of coming back and opening doors when least expected. On starts the banter, the witty humor, the brains to brawn, the high stakes wagers, the plotting and daring arrangements. Juliet and Max have been parted by five years and life but the love between the two has not diminished. I felt as if it had strengthened.

You will open a door to fun and laughs. Hot, sexy (not smutty) romantic interludes. I look forward to more from the Season’s Original. Gemme has a special place in my heart. I hope she is next up. I did enjoy visiting the other couple from the series. I love the way the all come together in the end. Seeing possibilities was delightful.

I love reading Vivienne’s romances there is always a little something of magic within. The hero and heroine seem to have that magic around them and it just draws you in also. Battle they may but they come back to each other stronger. Vivienne has never let me down. I love reading her historical romances. Each one brings something different to the forefront. She imparts something of a historical note.

Season’s Original series:

All I Want for Christmas (The Duke’s Christmas Wish) – Season’s Original, #.5 SEE REVIEW

The Debutant is Mine – Season’s Original, #1

This Earl is on Fire – Season’s Original, #2 SEE REVIEW

When a Marquess Loves a Woman – Season’s Original, #3

Blurb

As a young, penniless gentleman, Maxwell Harwick knew he had little to offer Juliet White—the most beautiful debutante of the season—except his love, and one thoroughly scandalous kiss. But when they were discovered in a compromising position, a nearly ruined Juliet fled into the arms of a rich, older lord... taking Max’s heart with her.

Now a widow, Lady Juliet Granworth intends to use the fortune she inherited from her odious husband to build a new life in London. Five years have passed, but she’s never forgotten Max… or his soul-searing kiss. Yet it’s clear the newly-minted Marquess of Thayne has not forgiven her—after all, the infuriating man can barely stand the sight of her. But Juliet has endured far too much to give up without a fight and if it’s a battle of wills he wants, it’s a battle he’ll get.

He hates her for breaking his heart. She detests him for destroying her future. But beneath all the loathing, simmers an intoxicating passion that neither can ignore… and the harder they resist, the harder they will inevitably fall.

Link to Follow Tour:

Goodreads Link:
Goodreads Series Link:

Buy Links:

Amazon | B& N | Google | iTunes | Kobo

Then, without warning, he crushed his mouth to hers.

The shock of it made her grow still, her eyes still open, even as his closed and a groan tore from his throat. The sound of it woke her, startling her into a new awareness. Max was kissing her, his lips firm and familiar, his tongue bold and commanding, daring her to retaliate.

And she did, slanting her mouth beneath his, parrying with his tongue while clutching handfuls of his shirt in her fists. He groaned again, and the vibration of it had the strangest effect on her eyelids, for they drifted closed. Her head tilted, lips parting, allowing him deeper. She wasn’t sure if this was part of a battle or a strange sort of truce.

Then again, weren’t truces civilized affairs between warring factions with cooler heads? That was certainly nothing like her and Max and this heated skirmish of mouths and hands.

She didn’t know what possessed her, but she pulled the hem of his shirt free of his trousers, and now her palms were pressed against the hard plane of his abdomen, her fingertips grazing a soft dusting of hair. It seemed the sensible thing to do—explore the terrain of her opponent’s territory—and she refused to overthink her actions.

The clasp of her cloak slipped free from her neck, the garment falling away as Max’s hands skimmed over her back, down the row of buttons descending to her derriere, then swept upward past the scalloped lace and to the bare flesh between her shoulder blades. His touch sent a shiver down her body, making her arch like a bow against him, poised to strike. Every inch of her skin suddenly felt taut, her breasts heavy, tingling. Her stomach dropped lower, weighted, emitting a sweet clenching sensation that seemed to deplete the air in her lungs.

She broke away from the kiss, turning her head, breathing hard now. Max did not cease his onslaught. He was battle ready, always, and far more skilled in this manner of warfare.

Even so, Juliet had no intention of surrendering. “You destroyed the walls because you’re afraid that I will win our wager and bring another man here? My, my, Max, that sounds rather like a jealous man.”

His attention shifted to the column of her throat, where his wet, open-mouthed kisses called attention to the steady throb at the apex of her thighs. She wanted to close her legs against it and squeeze tightly, but Max was there, the hard length of him pushing against her, driving her back against the wall. Her hips rocked against his in retaliation—or perhaps because she wanted to feel him once more. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure that a battle was supposed to feel this good. But with Max, it was difficult to tell the difference. Part of her loved fighting with him. Every argument felt like a prelude to something more, something so near and yet still out of reach.

Her frustration mounted when he did not answer her taunt, and so she slipped her hands free of his shirt, took his face in her hands, and kissed him again. Yes, that would show him that she was in control. This time, her tongue swept into his mouth, and her hips rolled slowly against his. And because she wasn’t finished proving it, she continued, even as he lifted her off the ground, his hands clasped over her hips and lower still, until he was cupping her bottom.

She found purchase on a demilune console, Max between her thighs, his position edging her skirts upward. But now the muslin was bunched between them. Parting her knees did nothing to bring him back to where he was a moment ago, to ease that insistent pulse. It was just like Max to give her a taste of something, only to leave her without. But she wasn’t going to let him do that to her again. So just like in many battles, she took him prisoner, locking her legs around him.

Max set his hands over her wrists and slowly drew them down from his face, his gaze fierce. “I am not going to be the one to stop this, Juliet. Do you understand? It will be you, like always.” He shook his head, pressing his forehead to hers. “I have reached my limit, and this game of ours must conclude, one way or the other.”

Her first impulse was to challenge him in return, but when she read his expression, she couldn’t. The edgy mockery she typically saw was no longer there. He searched her gaze, his dark eyes seeming vulnerable, and the furrows between his brows no longer angry but pained. He was open and exposed, revealing a raw desire so potent that it almost frightened her. Mostly because she felt it too.

She realized this was no longer about the house or any of their arguments. In fact, she wasn’t sure if it ever was. No, this was about something more, that tangible thing between them that she couldn’t shake loose.

If she chose to leave, she sensed that things would never be the same between them again. And if she stayed . . . things would never be the same between them again.

But she’d come this far, and running away was not an option. She’d had five years to think about Max’s kiss. Five years of wondering what it might have been like if she’d made a different choice.

“I haven’t once looked at the door, Max.” And then she tipped her chin and pressed her mouth to his.

Goodreads Link:
Goodreads Series Link:

Buy Links:

Amazon | B& N | Google | iTunes | Kobo

Author Info
USA Today bestselling author, VIVIENNE LORRET loves romance novels, her pink laptop, her husband, and her two sons (not necessarily in that order … but there are days). Transforming copious amounts of tea into words, she is an Avon Impulse author of works including: Tempting Mr. Weatherstone, The Wallflower Wedding Series, The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series, The Duke’s Christmas Wish, and the Season’s Original Series.

Author Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads