The Romance Vault

What more can I say, I absolutely loved this trilogy, my only neg would be the size of each book buy hey I absolutely cannot fault reading these books.

I honestly feel for a very refreshing change that this third and final book actually delivered a little bit more than it's predecessors. What I mean by that is was full on, it hadn't petered out to just tying things up. This was so full of turns and truths coming to light, hey you might even view the parents in a different light after this one! what was Dr D...head up to? What is Sloane going to do about Sara's revenge?

The pulse was humming all the way through this book and I would without a doubt recommend these three books to any NA romance novel lovers who likes a bit more than just steam, alpha males, fiesty heroines and a whole host of great characters. I will love Drake forever and Kellen, I would love a friend like him. The plot was extremely well presented as were all the people you come across. Sloane and Kat are excellent leads and their whole plus one relationship was extremely fun to follow.

I am definitely going to be reading more Jennifer Lyon after these.

After The Proposition I knew I was in for an enjoyable read and I was right. We're captured again into their heady relationship where plus one boundaries are going to be tested and secrets begin to unfold.

Again the secondary characters are excellent and especially Drake, whose not going to like Drake! Dr D....head as in David plays his role again at making us think that things are definitely not what was told about the mugging and also we meet Sloane's mum and yep that sure had me gripping me the edge of the seat to stop my hand going into a fist ready to strike her. God that woman is something else! Jennifer is really good at creating engaging characters.

Really looking forward to the conclusion, glad this book was a little longer that the first and even more glad to see Obsession is the longest of them all.

Firstly the price drew me in and then rather quickly the words.

The mystery surrounding Kat and her mugging is always festering in the background. Also David and his connection to the mugging, is she dreaming or is her flashbacks pointing her to the truth. Kat's character was written extremely well, she could have come across as a wishy washy heroine but oh no, Kat has claws but she also has insecurities which in part is since the mugging. Her parents are total A-holes and her life has been an uphill struggle but she hasn't let that get her down. She meets this tall, dark and brooding man; Sloane who notices her hiding and engages with her straight away. Little does Kat know that Sloane also has a past that torments him and he notices in her a difference to all the other plus one's he has ever had and he's automatically drawn to her.

This is the beginning of their relationship and whether Kat is going to let him into her world but it's also whether Sloane can continue to hide his vendetta and this is what makes it a page turner, you need to know more of what happened to her and you want to see which way Sloane is going to go.

The secondary characters also play a major role, they all have purpose whether you love them as in Kellan or hate them as in her parents.

An interesting start to this trilogy, I am looking forward to the next instalment.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly I have to say it's the cover that draws you to this book. It's an excellently presented piece of artwork for sure. Hot dude, the house gives an idea of connection. The black and white photography with the colourful title is very visually stimulating altogether; yes I would say this book cover is certainly enticing indeed.

This story is short and a quick read. Because of that though I found the plot rushed and hard to fully sink into.

I also really struggled to connect with the heroine; Kate. On the one hand she was portrayed as kind and helpful but what alienated her to me was how she spoke and interacted with her parents. I am a parent, my oldest a teenager, how Kate spoke to her parents was just like a stroppy teenager who felt everything was unfair towards them, this to me is not the actions of a 21 year old. So I found her behaviour quite juvenile and hard to warm too. But when she was being thoughtful like when she purchased food for Jane and Mrs M. this was a side of her I liked and could interact with.

Ben was the saviour in my eyes, he is a likeable man. Kind, caring and thoughtful. He was troubled though and you could guess what the connection was in the story from very early on. What I found slightly strange was the role reversal of Ben being the good, sensible and almost virginal character and Kate being the promiscuous, drug experimenting, drunken one. This again did little to warm me to her, I don't like reading girls/women portrayed in the light that Kate was, don't get me wrong I don't like meek and doormat heroines either, I just don't like immature, self centered, slightly selfish characters as in how Kate came across to me.

So all in all this is an OK read, it's quick and I feel perhaps too quick. I would have liked to get to know the characters more and the plot to have been building with the mystery surrounding why Ben says he can't be with Kate. It was too condensed in my eyes and left you little time to get to know them fully, but that's just how I feel. Some of it felt unbelievable and I don't feel the plot was suspenseful enough, it was easy to work it all out before the reveal. Will I read the next book about Jane, in truth I am really not sure, I am certainly not drawn to adding it to be 'to read' pile.

So this is another author jumping on the bandwagon of steamy biker club reads that are all the rage at the moment. And because of this we need to weed out the ones that lack the oompf, the wow and the awe factor that comes with reading MC books.

Unfortunately for me this book does lack all the above, don't get me wrong it's ok but that's as far I can go with praise for this book. It's easy to fall into but not a lot actually goes on and there is things that Angel does that has me questioning her character and how she went from a 19 year old virgin to nympho pretty much overnight. It did have some redeeming qualities sporadically but overall this is readable but simply if you go into this with high expectations and you will be disappointed.

If your expecting it to read like Kristen Ashley, Madeline Sheehan, Crystal Spears and even Jamie Begley (when she sorts her typos out) then you will be disappointed, Lash is not of that calibre. It's an entry level read that is a bit blah and a bit been there done that kinda read, the conversations are nothing new, he barks she obeys. He swears a lot, she doesn't - so there is nothing that makes this book any different and stand out it simply does not. A mediocre read that like I say don't go in expecting exciting MC revelations and you won't be disappointed.

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The pendulum swung between 3 to 3.5 and even 4.0 stars during this book.

Oooh this is a hard one to review, on the one hand I did enjoy this book but on the other hand I struggled with it and I am so frustrated because Elizabeth Finn is one of my favourite authors and I really don't want to not give a rave review for any of her work.

I was one of those that was absolutely awe struck with Elizabeth's book The Devil's Pawn and I really enjoyed Restoring Jordan, this book however was ok and sometimes really enjoyable and then it fell back to being ok.

I couldn't fathom how anyone would want to be subjected to the kind of anger/hate that Darren was throwing her way. I mean the episode in the bedroom when she was listening to his conversation with his mum well, I would have never forgiven him for saying those words because once words are spoken they can never be retracted no matter how much the giver of those words say they didn't mean to say them. There were many times she should have just left, maybe I am the unforgiving one but had Bailey not suffered enough! She was not around for her father, she lost her only job because of Darren (even then I would have screamed and shouted at him for being an arsehole! Considering the conversation he had with her father I can't believe he was doing the things he was doing, so hurtful and so hateful, yes I got that he was struggling to get over what happened but his parents had got passed it, he saw how Bailey was struggling and still he was relentless in his treatment of her.

I also found this slightly endless in places, it wasn't feeling really riveting enough, but maybe that's because of me not being able to fully like Bailey. I don't know but I found myself on numerous occasions looking at what percentage I had got to. I also didn't enjoy the swing from past to present especially when we're still visiting the past after the event, I thought then it would kick off and stay in the present and how they were going to deal.

Maybe I truly haven't been 'in love' in the true sense of what we read about, you know when we would forgive anything and take anything thrown at us, well I am sorry I can't see that happening in real life, there are many more fish in the pond so to speak, first loves or not - or am I being hyper critical and a bit black and white? Arggghhhh this book is making me question myself! Makes me think I am a hard biatch! (Which I'm not - honest!) Which I know also means I'm interacting with the book, but just not so much in the way I wanted to be :0)

I was 100% feeling the pain of Bailey and had tears several times but it wasn't enough for me to fully immerse in this book. Elizabeth is still one of my favourite authors and I think I will revist this book again at another time and see if it was just me and not in the right headspace at the time of reading it the first time, because let's face that can happen.

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A well deserving 4.5 star read.

Well what can I say - OMG what a trilogy this was, but before I delve into this book I need to get this out first.

By far and away TRUTH was my most favourite of these three books, it was heart pumping, shocking, totally riveting and stayed with me for this whole past year waiting for the third. So you need to see where I'm coming from reviewing this book 3.

Without a doubt nobody can deny the talent of Aleatha Romig, she pens an extraordinary story and what can only be described as a story you feel could be truly be true and you wouldn't be surprised to see either one of them on the news or on the cover of a magazine! I loved Convicted, I loved the nasty arse Tony (sick I know), I loved his drama, his essence dripped off the pages. I loved Truth, I mean I really LOVED Truth, this book excelled in the mystery, suspense and drama of their relationship. I really liked and almost loved Convicted - yeah my rating has dropped, don't get me wrong I am not disappointed, I didn't not like it, it was executed really well but heck if that opening chapter didn't throw me into a wide open mouthed what the heck moment! I don't think any expected book 3 to kick off like that.

I just don't feel this book had the same aura as the previous two, this was far more gentile, the love story is paramount, yeah we get a few twist and turns along the way I kinda like how this was written and then on the other hand I didn't like how this book was written. The backwards and forwards was ok but when I got to a part that was meant to be in the present I was having deja vu and went back and saw that I had indeed read this same bit but in a different time and then wondered how could I be reading the present in the past, actually I wasn't but that's what if felt like! I didn't like that bit, to explain a bit more, it was Chapter 20 this was Aug 2016 when she was remembering the past and then in Chapter 32 which was 2013 (as in the past), we live that moment again, yeah it had slight text changes but it was the same bit. Just felt odd to me. I can't help thinking though that if these books had been written closer together the writing style would not have changed so much from the 1st to last book, don't get me wrong they are all still extremely well presented, but each one feels different to the other in my opinion. Book 3 is definitely presented in a different vein than the others.

In reality Convicted was very cleverly written and I loved the curve balls thrown at the end. I really did enjoy this book in spite of it's different deliverance, I was completely invested in it, I just wasn't so thoroughly in love with it as this was a bit of a gentile, coaster ride whereas I had been loving the drama and angst and vendetta filled making my previous rides heady and blood pumping.

Thank you Aleatha for one of the best trilogies I've ever read.

This is good as BDSM books and stories go. It has enough bite to tantalise you with and it's very easy to fall into their story.

This had nice elements that were different enough from other books about this lifestyle, the characters were written very believably and both came across as likeable and very readable. It contained just the right amount of mystery surrounding them to keep your hooked all the way through, throw in the drama towards the end and hey presto - all the great ingredients to make your eyebrows raise, your lips curve into a smile and your head to swoon over another sexy alpha male.

Having seen though that book 2 is this book but done in Nathanial's POV, I'm not sure I want to read that and may very well skip straight to The Training to finish their story.

Bloody hell, bloody hell....BLOOOOO--DEEEEE hell!

I love, love, love Marian Tee and her quirky, well put together stories. I love her characters and how they are so emotionally locked in my head whilst I am devouring her books. I love how one minute you'll be crying with laughter and then the next crying from emotional pain as you watch her characters stumble and hit rocky patches along their journey.

I honestly don't care how cliche some will say these books are, I don't care if others don't like them as much as I do but I will still recommend to anybody I know and even you reading this that I don't know. I wholeheartedly sing to you to read this author. She will without a doubt get you out of a book funk, she will have you laughing at the antics her heroines get up to and she will also reduce you to tears. Think Sophie Kinsella style with erotica. You'll have some idea what to expect.

This book is more emotional than the book When Fangirls Lie but even though I had to read a lot through teary eyes I just loved it. Full of enough will he, won't he and will she, won't she, it's light enough to just fall into with no brain taxing but totally fun enough and colourful enough to keep you enthralled till the end.

Can't wait to hopefully read Rathe's story next. Please Marian churn it out quick if your writing it if only for your #1 fangirl here ;0) who is totally smitten with your books.

I honestly can't recommend this series enough! If you are up for a lot of humour because honestly it's shoulder shaking in some parts and wet eyes from laughing too hard in others it truly is hard to not connect with the characters that Marian Tees writes about. There's a lot of sexiness, a fair bit (actually a whole pile) of steam and a really good fun storyline that won't be taxing on your brain but actually totally engaging. If you like the sound of that then honestly look no further than these How Not to be series.

We were introduced to Yanna and Constantijin in the first book and they make appearances in this book but the story is between Saffi and Staffan and it is just as well put together as Yanna's.

Saffi is trying her hardest to be a groupie but little does she know that Staffan knows she isn't one at all. I love her facebook updates and all the twitter updates as we travel through their story. I love the way Staffan gets heated up over them and stalks her without her knowing. Staffan as true to form as Constanjiin was, does something so ridiculously stupid that yet again I have a twitchy palm that want's to slap him so hard for being such an arse and again all it reiterates to me is that the connection between reader and characters is wired and live from the get go.

I kinda would class these books as adult romcom chic-lit, I hope that doesn't offend Marian but they are so light hearted and all about romance but done with explicit sexy romps along the way. The story is all about the romance building between them and some secrets and Staffan not wanting to let his heart get beat up again and this is his downfall and why he acts like an arse. When that happens it's hard not to read it blinking back a few tears for Saffi. But what happens along the way is absolutely hilarious, I will never ever forget the dance off, omg I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks when Staffan walked in and saw Saffi's dance, I so wasn't expecting that and the visualisation in my head is what had me laughing so hard.

I was so glad to see their story continues as I can honestly say I am a total fangirl of Marian Tees, I absolutely love her fresh, fun, sexy writing style. Her sense of humour is totally connected to mine and is probably why I find these books such total fun, but also I am absorbed into the characters and feel their emotions straight away they are written so well, they seem so real.

Right I've given this 4.5 stars so let's get the negative out the way first:-

1/. If I read the word 'fog' in the next month it'll be too soon. Aurora you used it far too much in this book, I was gritting my teeth at 100th time I read it (slight exaggeration there but that's how annoying it felt to me).
2/. For a proof read book it was annoying to come across errors that had been missed, to be fair there wasn't that many but I just wish there hadn't been any.
3/. Not enough 'Beast'.
4/. If I read she wore an 'off the shoulder' once more I was going to scream at her to throw her friggin wardrobe out and start again!

Now the good bits:-

1/. If your after hot romance with humour then this will tick the box, there is plenty of humour abound in this book and some of it is really laugh out loud too. One particular scene had me in hysterics last night at midnight when all in my house were asleep except for me who was trying her hardest to not laugh too loudly. It was one of those moments that socks you immediately and it had something to do with kicking and someone's nether regions - omg it was too funny. November's fun side shone through the whole of this book as did Beast's. I just wish there had been more antics with Beast. As far as heroines go November is up there as a fave, she's fun, sassy, doesn't take bull from anyone and is very vulnerable so she is very sensitive and that just makes you want to love her all the more.

2/. Asher, phoaaaar. Hot with capital H, a suddenly 'ex' playboy, he's been hit by the love train. He knows what he wants and he's macho enough to be relentless until he get's it. He's an ace dominator and pretty darn fine all round really.

3/. Really funny but also really sexy. A good story that although you'll kinda know the who, what, why and where and the outcome the ride along to the end of it was done well enough I didn't care that it was all panning out exactly how I thought so there was no element of surprise. Even with it's fault's it was just too good.

I hope Aurora is going to write Asher's brother's stories they are all knicker exploding hunks!

So I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed this book, it only lost half a star because of that word 'fog' (Aurora there is many other words out there to describe November's state after she had been Asher'ed, being in a fog got really boring after the first half a dozen times, just saying.) Lastly the spattering of typos and missed out words sorry, it was good, indeed very, very good, without the typo's it would have been a knockout.

So I'm sitting here wondering a lot about this book. I am wondering why this book is receiving 5 stars from reviewers and it's making me question what I might have missed. But then shaking that thought out of my head I know I missed nothing and I certainly didn't miss the plentitude of grammatical errors, usage of tense errors and whole words missing in places. This is mostly where I find it so hard to believe that it's receiving 5 stars. Considering how appealing the book cover is and the synopsis I jumped on this book straight away and was especially doing a happy dance because it was free. To be brutally honest now though, I would have been so disappointed if I had paid money for it.

The actual story is well thought out, I am however saddened by the deliverance. This book if it had passed through beta readers and proof readers it would most definitely be a massively bigger hit than it is.

Another point is why couldn't Joanna (the author) called Sophia's mum - mum? She would be introduced as mum and then called Michelle? I don't think I've ever seen this done before. Even her dad was called dad and not written with his Christian name so why wasn't Michelle called mum all the time? I was waiting for the story to say that she wasn't her real mum or something to justify it. Here's an example:- 'Sophia wasn’t going to tell her mother that Jessica was only able to paint when she was high on cocaine. Michelle wouldn’t believe her,' surely that should have read - her mother wouldn't believe her? This happened all the time. In my eyes those interactions didn't read right at all and it brought the story down along with the other mistakes.

Then there were places where words were added that didn't relate to the conversation that was going on:- for example - "Oh, Sophia how nice to see you. Come on in," said her Auntie Julie beaming......... then the reply is:- "Good, I heard that Ramona was back?" Why the heck is she replying good? She hadn't been asked how she was! Arghhhhh makes you think you've drunk too much vino and imagining stuff, having to re-read several passages because of these errors was frustrating to say the least.

So I found the mistakes tedious and annoying and it was affecting how I was perceiving Sophia and Harry's story. Because of this I honestly did have trouble fully connecting with them both and this left me feeling stripped of having any emotions with them.

Potentially this could have been a pretty darn fine read of this genre, sadly for me I can only review it as mediocre read, that if re-edited and partially re-written it would then become an interesting and engaging read. To be honest I am not sure if I want to read on about Lennox or Maxwell.

Probably going to go with 3.5 stars as I did like the 'bones' of this romance.

However, I did find it could have been condensed a lot and still held the same punch. It was far too drawn out considering there is a second book; and I hope to God it only has a sequel and ends there.

I felt this book waffled quite a bit. Sometimes the character's deliberative thoughts were gone over like groundhog day, up to three or four times the same realisations were delivered which I found a tad annoying.

The characters are likable but all had niggly traits that irked me sometimes. Like Alex continually berating Ely for her relationship with Cole when he had his own secrets............ I had guessed a lot of what the secrets were so none seemed like great revelations to me. I can't deny the hottie sex scenes, they certainly had heated chemistry between them.

I will read the next book but I really hope the two authors curb the overflowing text a bit better next time, if they can then the story should rock a whole lot better which would be a lot more satisfying.

All in all a good read, a book that passages can easily be skimmed and not lose any of the story, definitely a book that urges you to read on to see what is going to materialise, drama wise.

I could really delve into this book and on one hand rip it apart and on the other hand sing it's praises to all and sundry. I was pitching on a rollercoaster a lot during this book, one minute I was so engrossed and glued and then then I found myself at a slow bit where I found the text slightly stilted and very short sentences like. 'I did this. He did that'. I struggled a bit in these parts but the overal story and characters had me hooked enough that in no way was I not going to finish this. Funny thing is I read the 'Lite' version and was constantly looking at the percentage bar thinking heck this doesn't feel 'lite' it's still double the size of a lot of books out there.

I also found Trey pitching me on the rollercoaster too, one minute I found him understanding, compassionate and yes dominant but not overly. Then bam some scenes he (especially two sex scenes near the end) he came across as a much different character with what he was doing. All in all though he is a very readable, likeable and sexy lead. Tylar I thought could stand her ground a bit more but then I do totally get where she was coming from, I like her but not till after her drinking episodes had stopped, they were getting on my nerves, I thought Andrea was writing her as a potential alcoholic and was glad that that didn't happen.

I can't deny what a great story this is, I just struggled a little bit sometimes on the deliverance but it isn't going to stop me finding out what happens in book 2. I NEED to find out what happens to them! Simple as, so that justifies it's 4 stars Andrea has me compelled to read on regardless of my finding it faulty in places.

Well I got to admit that again Madeline has penned an 'undeniably' good read full of angst, hardship, brotherhood and deep seated loyalties. A fiery love story that is as harrowingly haunting as it is beautifully full on. Oh how I missed getting down and dirty with the Horsemen!

But and I hope I don't get lynched by others because of the following, I actually struggled to fall into this story. Book 1 had me gripped in it's jaws immediately, this one took me a little while and I found I was a little bored at the start because of there was loads of passages of reminiscing text by a lot of the characters. I also struggled a little with the way we had to have the past offered up sporadically. I was fully seated into the story though at 75% when suddenly we were in the present, the story unfolded into the here and now and that redeemed it massively for me. Me personally I am not so keen on books that constantly delve into a character reminiscing the past and also characters that mull over their thoughts a lot and do a lot of 'what if's' and this book had a fair amount of those at the start and the middle. Because of this it didn't seem so action packed at the start. But and this is why I don't want to get lynched and shot down, I still really, really love Madeline and her writing style (without the reminiscing bits). Maybe at the beginning of this book I just wasn't in the right frame of mind I don't know but I did struggle and hey if you look at the 109 reviews before me nobody else seemed too or maybe they just didn't want to pick holes because we all love Madeline regardless, but it's what I felt so it's what I am telling you.

Don't get me wrong (so please don't shoot me), as I said I really did enjoy this book, I just didn't find it quite as amazing as book 1 (I'm sorry!). Maybe I was over the shock and awe factor of how Madeline writes after book 1, so what I was reading was of no real surprise whereas in book 1 it was all totally fresh and in your face, shocking and riveting - bit like that saying - been there done that..........

Totally glad I read it though, it'll still go on my favourites shelf as I can't deny it is a powerful no holds barred biker read and I am looking forward to book 3.

If a book has left it's imprint on you and you know your going to be stuck as to what to read next because what you have just read is replaying in your brain over and over and it's hard to let go of. In other words you know you've just read a damn good read. This book does stay with you, and I was so pleased at the end to see there is a book 2. Don't be put off by that, this book does not contain a cliffhanger but does leave you wanting to carry on their story and like I say I was so pleased to see it hasn't come to an end yet.

Being 100% truthful I struggled a smidge with Tess's acceptance of her dark side, when she was struggling with Brax she let us know that she wanted more than missionary and wham bam thank you Mam, but I was a bit shocked at the level of what she would go to and I still struggle with men that would want to harm somebody they connected with. So Q disappoints me a little that he wants to harm Tess as much as he does. Yes I get about his past and he enjoys life on the dark side but surely when they find their soul partner (so to speak) they wouldn't want to break blood with them?

But..... and I mean this, I get this book is dark and I get that it wasn't going to sit well with me sometimes, but I am grown up enough to admit fascinating writing and to read subject matter that I find a lot shocking is just downright riveting sometimes. This story I find is powerfully presented. It's disturbing on a lot of levels, contains harrowing scenes, but it also contains hope, belonging, a person finding themself and passion.

I did come across some typos and one that made me laugh was this line - With another hand, he found my centre, - I just had to laugh because what the heck! How many hands does he have then! Methinks that should have read - With his other hand....... lol :0) Anyways it was nice to have the heaviness lifted with a little giggle over that one.

I Really enjoyed Tears for Tess, it is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, if you loved The Tied Man, Captured in the Dark, Seduced in the Dark, Escape from Paradise, The Dark Light of Day to name a few you will really enjoy this. If you can't handle slave, capture, rape and general unrelenting mind-slewing dark scenarios then you'll want to stay clear of books like this; you have been warned!