Release Day Review: Wicked Angel (Wicked Horse Vegas #6) by Sawyer Bennett

Wicked Angel
(Wicked Horse Vegas, Book #6)
by Sawyer Bennett
Release Date: August 6, 2019

Synopsis:

First there was pain, and now there is just… nothing. No one can ever understand the losses I’ve suffered. A solitary existence that consists of my work and the empty house that serves as a constant reminder of all I have lost.

After months of paralyzing emptiness, I turn to The Wicked Horse so I can feel something. Anything, really. Any shred of emotion that will explain why I’m still here. Any justification for why my life was spared and theirs were not.

It’s all in vain. Not even the debauchery of the notorious sex club can fill the hollowness that consumes me.

Until she walks in.

Absolutely perfect. Gorgeous and bends to my will. Gives me her body willingly, while expecting nothing more from me than the pleasure I offer her. And the more she gives, the more I find myself wanting to take.

Wanting to crawl out of my personal hell for this wicked angel.

Download WICKED ANGEL:
Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Google Play | Kobo | Paperback | Audio

What I thought about Wicked Angel

Benjamin Hewitt suffers an devastating accident that leaves him injured and filled with a deep loss of everything he holds dear to his heart. The only way he can make it through the day is to close himself off from all feeling, turning him into a neurosurgeon that has issues when it comes to interacting with people, which isn't all that good for his partner and career.  Realizing he must do something, he turns to the anonymous sex of the Wicked Angel, where he starts to feel some small return to feeling. 

Elena Costieri likes having uncomplicated sex at the Wicked Angel, where she can indulge her desire to submit.  When she has a scorchin hot night with a mysterious man, she can't forgot just how good it was.  When she happens to meet him at her best friend's birthday party, well, things take off from there.  Multiple interactions turn into something akin to dating and it isn't long before Ben and Elena are spending lots of time together.

As Ben starts to come back to the land of the living, he's filled with lots of feelings that he wants to run away from, which he does, leaving Elena with lots of questions about Ben's past.  It's a good thing she's a very patient wicked angel who understands just what Ben is going through.

Wicked Angel is a sweet story of starting a new life in the aftermath of tragedy.  There's plenty of Wicked Horse naughtiness, as I've come to expect from this series. It was easy to root for Ben to have some happiness in his life after what he went through, and Elena was just the person to bring him back into the light.

An easy, entertaining read.

An ARC was provided for review.  

About the Author: 

Since the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, Off Sides, in January 2013, Sawyer Bennett has released multiple books, many of which have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

A reformed trial lawyer from North Carolina, Sawyer uses real life experience to create relatable, sexy stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From new adult to erotic contemporary romance, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone.

Sawyer likes her Bloody Marys strong, her martinis dirty, and her heroes a combination of the two. When not bringing fictional romance to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to a very active daughter, as well as full-time servant to her adorably naughty dogs. She believes in the good of others, and that a bad day can be cured with a great work-out, cake, or even better, both.

Sawyer also writes general and women’s fiction under the pen name S. Bennett and sweet romance under the name Juliette Poe.

Connect with Sawyer:

 Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Book + Main Bites | BookBub | Amazon | Newsletter | Master Blogger List

 

Review: How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway

Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.
 
By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed help-desk tech at a start-up incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—”Hatchlings”—who can’t even fix their own laptops but are apparently the next wave of start-up geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she’s matched with on the ubiquitous dating app Fluttr.

But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harassers and abusers in the online dating space. It’s called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.

Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she’s the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life and friendships, or change her life forever.

Add to Goodreads

Buy Links

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Google

What I thought about How to Hack a Heartbreak

I'm not going to rehash the plot of this, the above summary does a good job of capturing the gist of the story. Having a long career in the tech field, I'm always looking for how the industry is portrayed especially when it comes to women.  

There were lots of things I liked about How to Hack a Heartbreak, starting first and foremost with the strong friendships with other women that are essential to this story.  From the help Mel gets in promoting her app, to the way they stepped up at the end when Mel really needed them -- these friendships warmed my heart the most in this story. Mel's group of girlfriends were awesome!

I also appreciated that Mel was an amazing programmer (although I didn't quite believe that she could program the entire site in a weekend!) and that she didn't let the set backs she faced hold her back.  Once she gained some confidence it was full speed ahead and I adored her for that.  It was a very positive portrayal of a woman in science and we need more of these in contemporary romance.

And my favorite part of How to Hack a Heartbreak was that the romance takes somewhat of a backseat in this story.  Alex is slightly strange, hot and cold, and he's really made to look slightly suspicious which ends up making Mel the one apologizing when it was more of a two-way sort of misunderstanding. I didn't like that as much, but I thought Alex and Mel made for a good couple.

What I liked the least about this book was the portrayal of just about all the men in the story as jerks in one way or another.  From Mel's coworkers who treat her like she's clueless about tech to the executives Mel deals with, they are all mean and nasty and I don't really think that is a true representation of the workplace.  Where were Mel's allies at work? I just couldn't buy that the guys were all as bad as they are portrayed her, but it did make Alex stand apart from them all.  

So overall, an enjoyable story.  A little slow at first but the last half of this book rocks. 

An ARC was provided for review. 

 

About the Author

Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker and recovering corporate software engineer. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she finally traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of code. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, browsing the aisles of her neighborhood bookstores, and planning her next big vacation.

Her second novel, How to Hack a Heartbreak, will be released from Graydon House/HarperCollins on July 30, 2019. Her debut, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World, is in stores now.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Review & Giveaway: Can You Hear It by Casey Diam

Today we have the release day blitz for
CAN YOU HEAR IT by Casey Diam!

Check it out and
be sure to grab your copy today! 

Title: CAN YOU HEAR IT

Author: Casey Diam

Genre: Sports Romance

About Can You Hear It:

Secrets. 
Deceptions. 
Tragedies.
Those were the root of all evil. One of those became the root of mine the day I lost the love of my life. My best friend. My lover.
Everyone disregarded it, saying, “Let’s face it, Averie, you have the rest of your life ahead of you.” They were wrong. James Lawrence was my ever after . . . until Ashton. 
If only he didn’t come bearing his own brand of evil. 
A secret. 
The reason he wanted me to stay away. 
I should have listened, and he should have tried harder, but both of us failed. And if we hadn’t, if he had told me when we first met, would it have altered the moment I realized that I was falling for him?
The slight variation in the air. The hitch in my breath. The lightness in my chest.
Impossible to know; I’d already fallen.
I was already ruined.

***A standalone sports romance that takes place in senior year high school. Due to explicit content, this book is suitable for 17+

Grab Your Copy Today:

Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | Goodreads

 What I thought about Can You Hear It

Averie suffers a huge loss when she loses her boyfriend James.  Now at a new school, she's still medicating her loss with alcohol and drugs. When she meets Ashton, he gives her hope that life can be good again, but he's also keeping a huge secret that can crush Averie again.

I did like Averie and Ashton's friendship-to-romance story and how Ashton's interest in Averie had some history.  I also liked the realistic portrayal of high school including the nasty stuff that the jealous girls engaged in and the partying.  It really bugs me to read a YA that ignores these realities, and Can You Hear It did not do that, nor did it glorify the drug and alcohol use. 

There's a nice cast of supporting characters from Averie's new school that I found interesting, especially Ryker and Brody. The adults were peripheral and uninteresting, excluding Ashton's dad who has an intriguing backstory. 

I did have some minor issues with this story that prevented me giving it a higher rating.  I found the first half to be a bit on the slow side and there were some aspects of the story pertaining to Ashton's behavior that needed more explanation but were never really expanded upon. But in spite of this, Can You Hear It did capture my interest with Ashton and Averie's story.

An ARC was provided for review.

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

   

 

About Casey Diam:

  

Some years ago, Casey rediscovered her passion for writing and hasn’t stopped writing since. Her favorite genre is romance with edge which is why she writes sexy, funny, sweet, and emotional stories that are a little bit more in depth, but so much fun to read. 

 

Connect with Casey:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Release Day Excerpt & Giveaway: Can You Hear It by Casey Diam

Today we have the release day blitz for CAN YOU HEAR IT by Casey Diam!

Check it out and be sure to grab your copy today! 

Title: CAN YOU HEAR IT
Author: Casey Diam
Genre: Sports Romance

About Can You Hear It:

Secrets. 
Deceptions.
Tragedies.
Those were the root of all evil. One of those became the root of mine the day I lost the love of my life. My best friend. My lover. Everyone disregarded it, saying, “Let’s face it, Averie, you have the rest of your life ahead of you.” They were wrong. James Lawrence was my ever after . . . until Ashton.
If only he didn’t come bearing his own brand of evil.
A secret.
The reason he wanted me to stay away. I should have listened, and he should have tried harder, but both of us failed. And if we hadn’t, if he had told me when we first met, would it have altered the moment I realized that I was falling for him?
The slight variation in the air. The hitch in my breath. The lightness in my chest. Impossible to know; I’d already fallen.
I was already ruined.

***A standalone sports romance that takes place in senior year high school. Due to explicit content, this book is suitable for 17+

Grab Your Copy Today:

Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | Goodreads

Exclusive Excerpt:

 My lips pressed to hers. “You can touch me anywhere.” I kissed her again. “It’s whatever you want, Averie.”

I would be lying if I said I hadn’t been masturbating to images of her—every fucking day. Especially after talking to her on the phone at night. Her voice held this sexy rasp that sent all kinds of signals to my cock each time she spoke, and the wrong signals, too. It wasn’t the let’s-be-friends kind. It was the let-me-spread-your-legs-and-have-you-for-dessert kind, let-me-make-you-come-on-my-cock kind. And as we began to make out again, it remained in the back of my mind that I needed to tell her about my condition.

Kissing was okay.

Touching was okay.

But anything more than that, and I would have to tell her first. It wouldn’t be anything short of a betrayal if I didn’t. She wasn’t like the other three I’d slept with, she was more, I felt it every time I so much as looked at her.

Her hand moved over my zipper, and my cock lurched in my jeans, and as she began to caress me, a groan caught in my throat.

Fuck. Take my cock out if you want, I told her with my kiss. Whatever you want, Averie. Oh, fuck yes . . .

Her grip tightened around my dick as she continued to work it through the material, all I could think was how much I wanted to feel her bare hands on me.

With me on the brink of insanity, my lips crushed to hers, desperate with need.

After pressing myself into her hand, I rolled onto my back and flicked my belt from the loop, undoing it and my button in two seconds flat before yanking my zipper down. As her eyes shifted to my hand shoving at my jeans and then the tent pole situation in my boxers, I watched her.

Her fingers glided over my abs and under the waistband of my boxers, and inside to grip my cock.

Oh, fuck.

My head fell back, and a heavy breath passed my lips as my eyes closed.

 Enter Casey’s Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

  About Casey Diam:

 

  
 Some years ago, Casey rediscovered her passion for writing and hasn’t stopped writing since. Her favorite genre is romance with edge which is why she writes sexy, funny, sweet, and emotional stories that are a little bit more in depth, but so much fun to read.

Connect with Casey:

Website | Facebook | Instagram