Monday 26 March 2018

BLOG TOUR: Marriage of Inconvenience (Knitting in the City, Book 7) by Penny Reid

MOI BT  BANNER.jpg

Marriage of Inconvenience, an all new romantic comedy standalone in the USA Today bestselling, Knitting in the City Series by Penny Reid, is available NOW!

MOI copy

There are three things you need to know about Kat Tanner (aka Kathleen Tyson. . . and yes, she is *that* Kathleen Tyson): 1) She’s determined to make good decisions, 2) She must get married ASAP, and 3) She knows how to knit.
Being a billionaire heiress isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it sucks. Determined to live a quiet life, Kat Tanner changed her identity years ago and eschewed her family’s legacy. But now, Kat’s silver spoon past has finally caught up with her, and so have her youthful mistakes. To avoid imminent disaster, she must marry immediately; it is essential that the person she chooses have no romantic feelings for her whatsoever and be completely trustworthy.
Fortunately, she knows exactly who to ask. Dan O’Malley checks all the boxes: single, romantically indifferent to her, completely trustworthy. Sure, she might have a wee little crush on Dan the Security Man, but with clear rules, expectations, and a legally binding contract, Kat is certain she can make it through this debacle with her sanity—and heart—all in one piece.
Except, what happens when Dan O’Malley isn’t as indifferent—or as trustworthy—as she thought?

Excerpt:
Staring at his chin, because I couldn’t quite lift my eyes any higher, I cleared my throat. “Should we get ready for bed?” “Sure,” he said, his voice a rumble. Dan’s eyes were on me, I felt the weight of them. My hands came to the hem of my skirt and I hesitated, feeling winded for some reason. Sneaking a glance at him, I immediately wished I hadn’t. His gaze was watchful, but it was also unmistakably hot in a way that seemed at once both avaricious and accusatory. The vice tightened around my lungs. Kiss him! Just freaking kiss him! You want numbered steps? Fine. You kiss him- check. He kisses you back- check. Then you make out- check. Check the boxes. I licked my lips, balling my hands into fists at my sides again, preparing to follow my hasty list. But then he said, “Undress me.” My breath caught. On instinct, my eyes lifted and collided with his in much the same way our bodies had collided at the top of the stairs just moments ago. Jarring. Startling. Thrilling. This time I couldn’t look away because this time I was falling. He made no move to catch me. “What? What did you say?” His eyes narrowed, which served only to increase the intensity of his gaze from smolder to inferno. “Take my clothes off.” I stared at him, licking my lips again, and shaking my head. That wasn’t one of my steps. Lifting my chin, I moved to kiss him. He leaned to the side, evading me even as his eyes dropped to my mouth. “Take off my shirt and I’ll give you a kiss.” He’d used his naughty-secret voice. An explosion of heat erupted in my belly, and now I was hot all over. I couldn’t figure out if the heat was embarrassment or arousal or both. He didn’t give me a chance to figure it out. His hands lifted and he undid his cuffs; then they moved to the top button of his shirt. “You better take over,” he said darkly, “or else you’re not getting that kiss.”


LIVE01

Read Today!
Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2neqv6k

REVIEW

RATING:


Here we are at the end(?) of the series... sigh... I suppose all good things must come to an end... or should it?... My only consolation, I actually started this series almost at the end, so just the thought of going thru the older books in the series makes me feel better already <grins>

Kat is the perfect example of "walk a mile..." It's so easy to judge her with her #firstworldproblems. But you know what, like my grandma used to say, small money, small problems, big money, big problems. Only a (very) small percentage of society might go thru what Kat went thru, but in the end, whether you're in that strata of society or not, it's not hard to understand that at the end of the day, Kat is just Kat. A woman who has to deal with family crisis, tackle mental health issues, just want to be a good friend and find love with the right man.

Dan couldn't be more perfect. Perfect for Kat, perfect book boyfriend. He's such a well-rounded character. He had his own insecurities. He overcame his challenges. And most importantly, at the end of the day, he was able to love Kat the way she needed to be loved. He was good with his family. He was a good friend. Dan... is the MAN! Sigh...

"He felt like a life raft. Like a strong, steady, safe harbor in the tempest of the last twelve hours. Or maybe in the chaos of my entire life."

It's delish to see how things unfolded for these two. Yes, Kat might challenge you a bit with her inner thoughts, well at least for me, but luckily, we got Dan's POV to balance things out. And of course, since this is Penny, you're def in for a few chuckles. Oh, oh, oh, I'll be totally remiss if I don't bring up their first kiss. One of the best I've read, I'm telling you!

If you're familiar with the series, then you know that friendships play a big part. After all, each book in the series feature each of the women in this tight-knit circle (did I just make a pun there?). If I didn't fully appreciate it in the first book I read in the series, then here, I fully got it. Just thinking about the friendship these women have, it reminds me of the women in my life who I called friends, friends I've known for like half my life or longer. And with that thought, it made me appreciate more how Penny worked it in. So far that alone, I thank you, Penny.

Now if you're not familiar with the series and you're a fan of romcom with a touch of nerd and a whole lotta' heart, you definitely cannot skip this series. 

PS. Shout out to Dan's mom, that is all:D

Enter the Giveaway for a complete signed set of the USA Today bestselling Knitting in the City Series!

Paperbacks.jpg

Meet Penny Reid:
Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.


PennyReid

Connect with Penny:
Twitter: @ReidRomance
www.pennyreid.ninja



Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie


Wednesday 21 March 2018

COVER REVEAL: Covet by Ella James

COVET by Ella James
Release Date: Coming Spring of 2018
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Designer: Candi Kane
Cover Photo: Wander Aguiar
 
   

     

BLURB

Homer Carnegie. Admit it—you know my name. Your kid’s got my e-trading card. Your husband sits up straighter when I stroll onto the TV screen. He knows I’m going to crack the bat and save the day. Even your grandma’s jonesing for my autograph. But women my age? They’re the worst. Or would that be the best?
It’s not my fault they line up at the door. They catch my balls all right, two at a time sometimes, or even three. Believe me, everybody wins.
At least they did—until the video. I heard TMZ paid a million for a bird’s eye view of Homer on his A-game. The only folks who didn’t watch with eager eyes? Red Sox management. They want me benched, or worse, shipped off to rehab.
It’s a long story, what happens next. How I end up on a boat, bound for the world’s most remote island: Tristan da Cunha. Just a speck of dust in the Atlantic.
Except my heart is there.
I don’t know that when I step onto the boat.
I don’t know a lot of things.
What I’ll covet…
What I’ll lose…
Coming 2018
     
CONNECT WITH ELLA
 
Subscribe to Ella's newsletter: https://www.ellajamesbooks.com/newsletter/


Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

Sunday 11 March 2018

Dark Clouds in My Tiny Slice of M/M Heaven

*This is a very LOOOONG post, apologies in advance

While this is a book-related post, I’m veering slightly off with this one. It’s not a review/excerpt/promo/Top 5 post. It’s just me making sense of what’s happening right now in the m/m romance world and unscrambling my thoughts on it.

There’s a big scandal happening right now, thanks to Santino Hassell. I won’t go into details because my knowledge of it is all scattered and I don’t want to skew any details. Whether on Twitter or FB, or even Goodreads (GR), a simple search will land you tons of results.

I’m here talking about it because frankly the GR thread is too huge a platform that intimidates me. I just don’t have the energy for that even though I've been following it closely. But I’m trying to make sense of all my feelings around this situation and I found this to be my only acceptable outlet.

I’ll start by saying I was a huge fan of Santino. Even the few people in RL who I can talk books with know how much I adored his writing. I followed him in every SM platform. I promo’d the hell out of his books (I will leave at ‘he’ for simplicity sake). I reviewed the heck out of his books… Typical fan stuff…

As much of a fan as I am though, I’ve still kinda’ remained on the periphery. I’ve always considered myself as insider who’s on the outside. I can fangirl like the best of them but I’ve always felt iffy becoming too close to any author because I’ve always felt like I won’t be able to review objectively once I cross a certain line and that’s not what got me blogging/reviewing in the first place. I just really like to read and offer my thoughts on books. Whether people listen or not, it doesn’t even fully matter. In my mind, at least my thoughts are out there.

So by being a Santino fan, yes, I’ve joined his groups, excluding Patreon though just because I wasn’t in the financial position to do so and I felt like buying and promo’g his books are plenty support as they were. I stayed on top of his Twitter posts. So yes, I’ve seen times in the past when he talked about someone going after him. But I didn’t realize how deep it went. It sounds like there were more on FB too but I’m more a Twitter gal. And truthfully, I saw early on how he seem to thrive on drama so I just chalked it up to that. Nevertheless, although I didn’t do what some of his rabid fans did, like go after the ones who’s “wronged” him, I also kept silent, and stayed out of it.

This is now part of my struggle. In a way, I suppose my silence meant that I didn’t believe the other party. I don’t know the other party(ies), I was only there because I’m a fan, so it must mean they were on the wrong side…. sigh… And sadly, even when things were starting to bubble in the last month or so, when things starting to pop up on my Twitter bec of RTs/replies from Twitter friends that I have little interaction with, I still thought “ooh, boy, another drama that Santino has found himself embroiled in” and just shrugged it off. At that point, I was still giving him the benefit of the doubt… oh how wrong was I!

...

And, with all that's come to light, these are my thoughts these days:

· This whole thing about him not being who he really is, whether he’s a she or he’s a they, it’s one thing to maintain this kind of persona in public, but when the same persona is also used privately when interacting with fans especially, that’s just deceit. You can’t have your cake and eat it too! You want to maintain your privacy, that’s fine. Remain the enigma that you are. You must’ve had valid reasons to do so and fans would’ve respected that. And I would think you would’ve have understood your limitations because of this boundary you’ve set for privacy sake and all. But no, you want to be able to represent voices based on your persona, and you want to be able to be out there in public events with this persona as well. If you were truly honest and respected your fans, you would’ve fixed all this before doing any of that.

· This whole thing about his Patreon and subsequently, the medical issues he brought up on several occasions. Yes, I get that there is “caveat emptor” in any monetary transactions. But these people who are up in arms  about how much of a fraud he is, not only did they financially support him in essence, they also inadvertently gave emotional support because of the sob story he provided. They’re angry because they’re hurt. Walk a mile, people… tsk-tsk…

· More importantly, the confessions that have recently come out about abusing people’s trust and sometimes appropriating their stories later for the sake of a plot, this is the most wrong of all. There is no defending this, period! I can't even begin to imagine how hurt these people must be. It breaks my heart.

· His most recent apology post on his website… I’m sorry to say but a day late and a dollar short. When it comes to public confidence, it's all about TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY, no? Believe it or not, people can see thru bullshit and sidestepping, surprise, surprise... sigh... As they say, you can fool some people some of the time, but you can't fool all people all the time...

· This whole thing with his author friends, some who stayed side by side with him lashing back with their own posts. Some of these authors are authors I’ve come to love because of their work. This is as big a struggle for me. I’ve read all their apologies. I know they’re trying to be sincere, but it’s also coming across as trite and very PR-y. On the one hand, they say that they’re also trying to make sense of things at their end. On the other, Santino himself mentioned on his web post that he’s stepping away from his friends because they don’t deserve to be sullied along with him. So which is it? Is this him just throwing you under the bus? That you didn’t know anything and you felt just as manipulated? Is that why you acted the way he did? Or are you still friends and you’re just letting him walk away from you? Which then means that if he didn't step away, you’ll still be up in arms with him?

...

Now, here we are, here I am. After all’s said and done, what now?

I haven't even be directly hit with this debacle and it still left me with all kinds of emotion, I can only imagine what those directly involved felt. Fwiw, kudos to all the brave souls who finally found the courage to bare themselves and tell their stories. May you find the healing that you deserve.

At this moment, I will leave my existing reviews of all the Santino books I've read, esp for the ones I've received an ARC for. I will hold up my end of the bargain, and consider it as my last act of kindness. It's in no way a denial of people's experience esp those who Santino has hurt. As for the books I've bought but not read, I will just let that be.

As for Santino's author friends, pls don't make me write you off completely. Not that you'll notice but I think I'll stay in the far recess of the background for now. If you need time to process, so be it... I'll be watching more closely.

My emotions over this will dull in time. I know I can retreat back to the pages of my happy place. But those people, those people directly affected, the real victims, the blow they took, I truly hope they have the help and support they need and they can move on.

...

Since we’re no longer living in times where the only thing you know about authors are what you read at the back of their books or what you read in interviews, the kind of access have changed how we interact with each other. Regardless, at the end of the day, there is such a thing as respect and kindness. Regardless of how you present yourself to the world, there is such a thing as authenticity.

And if I can end this with a message, it'll be this: Santino, your die-hard fans will continue to love you no matter what, but that will not negate how your past actions have hurt so many people, including your friends. I hope you seek the help that you seem to need. I hope you don't find yourself on the other side of the same situation... I suppose these words will be my last act of kindness.

Peace!


Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

Tuesday 6 March 2018

RELEASE BLITZ: Marriage of Inconvenience (Knitting in the City Series) by Penny Reid

SB_BANNER.jpg

Marriage of Inconvenience, an all new romantic comedy standalone in the USA Today bestselling, Knitting in the City Series by Penny Reid, is LIVE!

MOI copy.jpg

There are three things you need to know about Kat Tanner (aka Kathleen Tyson. . . and yes, she is *that* Kathleen Tyson): 1) She’s determined to make good decisions, 2) She must get married ASAP, and 3) She knows how to knit.
Being a billionaire heiress isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it sucks. Determined to live a quiet life, Kat Tanner changed her identity years ago and eschewed her family’s legacy. But now, Kat’s silver spoon past has finally caught up with her, and so have her youthful mistakes. To avoid imminent disaster, she must marry immediately; it is essential that the person she chooses have no romantic feelings for her whatsoever and be completely trustworthy.
Fortunately, she knows exactly who to ask. Dan O’Malley checks all the boxes: single, romantically indifferent to her, completely trustworthy. Sure, she might have a wee little crush on Dan the Security Man, but with clear rules, expectations, and a legally binding contract, Kat is certain she can make it through this debacle with her sanity—and heart—all in one piece.
Except, what happens when Dan O’Malley isn’t as indifferent—or as trustworthy—as she thought?

LIVE01.jpg

Read Today!
Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2neqv6k


REVIEW

RATING:




Here we are at the end(?) of the series... sigh... I suppose all good things must come to an end... or should it?... My only consolation, I actually started this series almost at the end, so just the thought of going thru the older books in the series makes me feel better already <grins>

Kat is the perfect example of "walk a mile..." It's so easy to judge her with her #firstworldproblems. But you know what, like my grandma used to say, small money, small problems, big money, big problems. Only a (very) small percentage of society might go thru what Kat went thru, but in the end, whether you're in that strata of society or not, it's not hard to understand that at the end of the day, Kat is just Kat. A woman who has to deal with family crisis, tackle mental health issues, just want to be a good friend and find love with the right man.

Dan couldn't be more perfect. Perfect for Kat, perfect book boyfriend. He's such a well-rounded character. He had his own insecurities. He overcame his challenges. And most importantly, at the end of the day, he was able to love Kat the way she needed to be loved. He was good with his family. He was a good friend. Dan... is the MAN! Sigh...

It's delish to see how things unfolded for these two. Yes, Kat might challenge you a bit with her inner thoughts, well at least for me, but luckily, we got Dan's POV to balance things out. And of course, since this is Penny, you're def in for a few chuckles. Oh, oh, oh, I'll be totally remiss if I don't bring up their first kiss. One of the best I've read, I'm telling you!

If you're familiar with the series, then you know that friendships play a big part. After all, each book in the series feature each of the women in this tight-knit circle (did I just make a pun there?). If I didn't fully appreciate it in the first book I read in the series, then here, I fully got it. Just thinking about the friendship these women have, it reminds me of the women in my life who I called friends, friends I've known for like half my life or longer. And with that thought, it made me appreciate more how Penny worked it in. So far that alone, I thank you, Penny.

Now if you're not familiar with the series and you're a fan of romcom with a touch of nerd and a whole lotta' heart, you definitely cannot skip this series. 

PS. Shout out to Dan's mom, that is all:D


Meet Penny Reid:

Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.
PennyReid.jpg

Connect with Penny:
Twitter: @ReidRomance


Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie


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