Natural Affection by Tristan Cruz #review

Natural Affection is completely different from anything I’ve ever read.  To me, it’s a Mystery/Futuristic Romance with an absolutely fascinating lead character and is a story filled with love.

I would recommend it for readers 18 years and older.

Natural Affection releases on September 11, 2017

natural affection

My Four Star Review: 

I haven’t read any of Tristan Cruz’s work, but I received an Advanced Reader Copy of Natural Affection and decided to read it.  This is Tristan’s second novel.  My spoiler free review follows.

The main character, Dr. Lennan Vincent, is a very interesting guy and his way of thinking is fascinating and unique.  Lennan’s life definitely revolves around a great deal of mystery and his ability to love is unmeasurable.   All he wants to do is save people, keep them alive, help them in any way he can, and try to make the world a better place. Lennan’s on a path, a mission he chose based on his thinking and how he wants to world to be.  Cora Vancova, the mother to 3-month-old Nayley,  has a tragic history and certain events put her directly into Lennan’s path. Lennan will tell you their worlds collided based on numbers that are alive and govern the universe.  (Just read the book and you’ll see what I’m talking about.)

You meet several secondary characters along the way.  A Detective Clark, who’s still dealing with the death of his son, and a young girl named Mira who’s in need of a heart transplant.  I found it interesting how differently Mira and Cora handled dealing with Isaac. All I’ll tell you about Isaac is, Isaac is based on vortex math and the golden ratio.  I feel like I received a crash course in mathematics while reading this book.  Have I peaked your interest yet?

I will admit this book does contain a “book trigger” for me and when I reached it, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.  But I pushed through, continued to read, and I was very happy that I did.  This trigger plays a very big role in this story.

I love to take a chance on a new author by reading their words and I’m glad I read Natural Affection.  Tristan’s writing style is a bit different from other authors I’ve read but I truly enjoyed the complexity of this story.  Thank you, Tristan, for giving me the opportunity to read your book before it’s even published.

More About Natural Affection:

The past is not what interests Doctor Lennan Vincent. His concern has always lied in the present future and the life that would inhabit it. Trying to save every beating heart, and mankind from its own destruction, Doctor Vincent wages war against death in the hospital and outside of it. Dedicated only to his moral code, he never expects to fall in love with a woman whose life was hanging over a bridge.
Only the most tragic events invade the life of Cora Vancova, a simple yet astonishingly beautiful woman, and thrusts her already severed heart into the arms of a man who would fall to his death to save her.
Lennan’s noble life cause is suddenly in question upon saving the life of Cora, causing him to reflect on his dangerous course. Containing powerful secrets only he created, Lennan must decide to continue on his current path or leave it behind him to ensure the safety of Cora. Lying in the shadows of the past, however, exists a secret not even a brilliant mind like Lennan could have foreseen.
Set in the urban chaos of Manhattan, two people fall fiercely in love and try to escape what destiny has in store for them. Lennan, however, understands better than anyone that destiny is a lie.
Fate is the falsest of hopes.
He is beyond any prophecy.

About Tristan Cruz:

Tristan Cruz is a passionate story teller whose interests include photography and film, as well as 3D modeling, and design. He uses his knowledge of these interests to tell brilliant stories that are deeply layered. He utilizes every aspect of his talents to take full control of his writing. This spans from custom inside art to the book covers. With his background in photography and film, Tristan Cruz uses images as inspiration to tell his stories. The deeply layered story telling and poetic writing style will allow visualization of the images that were used for inspiration, impressing upon your mind a story not soon forgotten.
An image can speak a thousand words. One image can inspire thousands of words into one story.

Find Tristan Cruz here: Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

Featured Author – Amy Harmon

My very first Featured Author is the amazing and extremely talented Amy Harmon! 

amy harmon pic 4

I’m a very big fan of Amy’s and I would highly recommend you read every single one of her books.  They are all extremely well written, you will fall in love with each and every character, and you will be begging Amy to give you more.  Here is some information on my favorites and below are links to find out more about Amy.

My first book was The Law of Moses back in May of 2015.  It is my absolute favorite Amy Harmon book.

If I tell you right up front, right in the beginning that I lost him, it will be easier for you to bear. You will know it’s coming, and it will hurt. But you’ll be able to prepare.
Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news – the little baby left in a basket at a dingy Laundromat, born to a crack addict and expected to have all sorts of problems. I imagined the crack baby, Moses, having a giant crack that ran down his body, like he’d been broken at birth. I knew that wasn’t what the term meant, but the image stuck in my mind. Maybe the fact that he was broken drew me to him from the start.
It all happened before I was born, and by the time I met Moses and my mom told me all about him, the story was old news and nobody wanted anything to do with him. People love babies, even sick babies. Even crack babies. But babies grow up to be kids, and kids grow up to be teenagers. Nobody wants a messed up teenager.
And Moses was messed up. Moses was a law unto himself. But he was also strange and exotic and beautiful. To be with him would change my life in ways I could never have imagined. Maybe I should have stayed away. Maybe I should have listened. My mother warned me. Even Moses warned me. But I didn’t stay away.
And so begins a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all . . . a love story.

Janis’s Review – The Law of Moses Review
Amazon Link: – http://a.co/cmLbEUg

The Song of David I read back in June of 2015.  It features a character from The Law of Moses.

** This book is a STANDALONE novel featuring characters that were introduced in The Law of Moses. It is not a sequel, but it is a spin-off, and it is recommended that The Law of Moses be read first.**
I won my first fight when I was eleven years old, and I’ve been throwing punches ever since. Fighting is the purest, truest, most elemental thing there is. Some people describe heaven as a sea of unending white. Where choirs sing and loved ones await. But for me, heaven was something else. It sounded like the bell at the beginning of a round, it tasted like adrenaline, it burned like sweat in my eyes and fire in my belly. It looked like the blur of screaming crowds and an opponent who wanted my blood.
For me, heaven was the octagon.
Until I met Millie, and heaven became something different. I became something different. I knew I loved her when I watched her stand perfectly still in the middle of a crowded room, people swarming, buzzing, slipping around her, her straight dancer’s posture unyielding, her chin high, her hands loose at her sides. No one seemed to see her at all, except for the few who squeezed past her, tossing exasperated looks at her unsmiling face. When they realized she wasn’t normal, they hurried away. Why was it that no one saw her, yet she was the first thing I saw?
If heaven was the octagon, then she was my angel at the center of it all, the girl with the power to take me down and lift me up again. The girl I wanted to fight for, the girl I wanted to claim. The girl who taught me that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.

Amazon Link: – http://a.co/7WBi5x2

I read Making Faces back in June of 2015.  Making Faces is my second favorite Amy Harmon book. 

Ambrose Young was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She’d been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have…until he wasn’t beautiful anymore.
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl’s love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior’s love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

Janis’s Review: – Making Faces review
Amazon Link: – http://a.co/8Y1psqt

I then moved on to A Different Blue which I read in December 2015.  It’s an extraordinary book and another of my favorites.

Blue Echohawk doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know her real name or when she was born. Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn’t attend school until she was ten years old. At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on with life, she is just a senior in high school. With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and overtly sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.
This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don’t know who you are. Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can’t love you back might be impossible.

Amazon Link: – http://a.co/24n9iJO

In May of 2016, I dove right into The Bird and the Sword and wow was this an amazing story and let me say another of my Amy favorites!

Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.
The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.
My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

Janis’s Review – The Bird and The Sword review
Amazon Link: – http://a.co/fN9521q

These are just a few of my favorites but like I said, you should really read every single Amy book.  I have! 

To find out more about Amy Harmon, follow the links below.

Find Amy Harmon here: WebsiteFacebookFacebook Fan GroupGoodreadsTwitterInstagramAmy’s Newsletter Sign upAmazon.

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

Wicked Bite (The Realm Enforcers Book 5) by Rebecca Zanetti #review

Rebecca Zanetti  delivers another outstanding Paranormal Romance in book 5 of her Realm Enforcers series.  Wicked Bite is fast passed, action packed, full of fire, witches, enforcers, a few vampires, and let’s not forget a Bear.  It will leave you breathless and definitely want and need to read more.

Wicked Bite is available today and is intended for readers 18 years and older.

wicked bite

My FIVE Star Review:

Let me start by saying this is book 5 of Rebecca’s Realm Enforcers Series.  You really need to read this series in order and I would also suggest reading Rebecca’s Dark Protectors (DP) series first as well.  (In my opinion, you don’t really need to read the Dark Protectors first, that’s why it’s just a suggestion, however, you will definitely get more joy out of the DP characters in the Realm series if you have a full understanding of them from the DP series.)

Now let’s talk about Beauregard McDunphy (Bear.)  I found out some very interesting things about Bear throughout this series and you definitely find out more in this book.  I know he does not like Witches or anything to do with the Coven Nine.  He doesn’t trust them, does not want to be near them, and wants them and everyone else to stay off his Motorcycle Club land.   In walks Nessa a witch who happens to be on the Coven Nine. I’m sure you can imagine, Bear is not happy with her appearing in his cabin but Nessa has a proposition that Bear really can’t turn down.  Nessa has quite a few secrets of her own and holy cow Rebecca, I didn’t see any of this coming!!!!!

This book is truly outstanding, the action is amazing, the writing is superb, the chemistry is off the charts for our lead characters and there are many appearances from the DP characters we all love!!

BRAVO Mrs. Zanetti!!  You keep writing them and I’ll keep reading them! I would highly recommend all of Rebecca’s books!

More About Wicked Bite:

As she hunts for a drug lord killing her fellow witches, all Nessa Lansa’s instincts point to the Grizzly motorcycle club. That might be because their leader, Bear, is the strong, silent shifter type: warm brown eyes and more muscle and alpha male than any woman can ignore. Which makes Nessa’s plan to seduce and betray him all the more dangerous . . .

Bear doesn’t trust the curvy, blue-eyed witch. But Nessa can heal the injuries that sap his strength. And since he can’t stop thinking of her lush body and teasing smile, her plan to mate him to reclaim her own power is highly tempting. Just one problem. Once a desire this wild is loose, no one will ever control it.

Reading Order for Realm Enforcers Series: 

Wicked Ride (Book 1) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Edge (Book 2) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Burn (Book 3) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Kiss (Book 4) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Bite (Book 5) Coming August 1, 2017

Start at the beginning with the Dark Protectors Series:  (Read before the Realm Enforcers Series.)

Fated
Claimed
Tempted – Novella
Hunted
Consumed
Provoked
Twisted – Novella
Shadowed
Tamed – Novella
Marked

Find Rebecca Zanetti here: WebsiteFacebookTwitterGoodreads.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley.

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

Happy 2-year Bookiversary to an Amazing Anthology: Girl Code by Cait Jarrod, DC Stone, Jessica Jayne and Lea Bronsen

Girl Code: An Anthology is 2 years old today!!!

girl code

I absolutely loved this Anthology and love these amazing authors.  If you haven’t read Girl Code yet, why not click your way over to Amazon and pick it up for just $3.99 on Kindle.  You will not be disappointed!

You get four short stories, all connected together but written by a different author, in this one amazing book.

To see my full review, click here:  janisf review of Girl Code

To find out more about these amazing authors, check out their details below:

Cait Jarrod: Website, Facebook, Twitter
DC Stone:  Website, Facebook, Twitter.
Jessica Jayne:  Website, Facebook, Twitter
Lea Bronsen:  Website, Facebook, Twitter

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

 

Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley

Dear Banjo is a Contemporary Fiction Romance with a New Adult feel to it.

DB 1000 wide

My Five Star Review:

Dear Banjo is a truly amazing story about two best friends, Willow (Banjo) Paterson and Tom Forrest.  Banjo and Tom both grew up on neighboring farms in Kimberley Australia and created a friendship bond that Banjo never wants to lose.  These two young people want the same things in life.  To go to university, learn all about organic beef operations and then take over the operation on each of their respective farms.  But one night, when they were 18 years old, Tom does something he vowed he would never do. He broke the “Pact.”  (And that’s all the information you’re getting out of me.  You’ll have to read to find out what Pact and how the story unfolds.)

I can’t even find the words to tell you how much I truly enjoyed this story.  The writing was beautiful, the characters we all amazing, and the ups and downs in this story will leave you breathless.   I  became a big fan of Sasha Wasley while reading her Young Adult books but out of all her books, Dear Banjo is now my favorite.  This is the kind of book I will not hesitate to pull out and re-read again and again.

More About Dear Banjo:

They were best friends who were never meant to fall in love – but for one of them, it was already way too late.

Willow ‘Banjo’ Paterson and Tom Forrest were raised on neighboring cattle stations in the heart of the Kimberley. As young adults, sharing the same life dreams, something came between them that Willow cannot forget. Now ten years have passed since she’s even spoken to Tom.

When her father falls ill, Willow is called home to take over the running of the family property, Paterson Downs. Her vision for a sustainable, organic cattle station is proving hard to achieve. She needs Tom’s help, but is it too late, and all too complicated, to make amends?

Tom’s heartfelt, decade-old letters remain unopened and unmentioned between them, and Willow must find the courage to finally read them. Their tattered pages reveal a love story like no other – and one you’ll never forget.

Dear Banjo is a wildly romantic and utterly captivating story about first love and second chances from an exciting new Australian author.

Buy Links:

Amazon US: http://a.co/1FBSzw6
Amazon UK: http://amzn.eu/3qfH0zB
Amazon AU:  https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B06XKGW9YT/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_x8kjzbHQF9D9C
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dear-banjo

About Sasha Wasley

Sasha Wasley was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia.

She has completed a PhD in cultural theory and loves nature, Jane Austen and puns.

Sasha is a farming wannabe, with a passion for animals and the land. Although she’s in her forties now, she still wants a pony.

Her debut novel, a young adult paranormal, was published in 2014. Today, she lives and writes in the Swan Valley wine region with her partner and two daughters, surrounded by dogs, cats and chickens.

Sasha writes mystery, paranormal and young adult novels as S.D. Wasley.

Find Sasha Wasley Here: Website, Facebook, Twitter, GoodreadsInstagram, Amazon, Newsletter.

Check out my review of Sasha Wasley’s Young Adult Novels here: SD Wasley – Young Adult Reviews

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

Wicked Kiss (The Realm Enforcers Book 4) by Rebecca Zanetti #review

Rebecca Zanetti’s Paranormal Romance Wicked Kiss is fast passed, action packed, full of fire, witches, enforcers, and even a few vampires.  It will leave you breathless and definitely want and need to read more.

Wicked Kiss released July 4, 2017, and is intended for readers 18 years and older.
wicked kiss

My Five Star Review:

Another 5 stars for Rebecca Zanetti!  She does it again in this amazing novel filled with characters from both of her wonderful series, The Dark Protectors and The Realm Enforcers.   I really can’t get enough of these characters and I will definitely keep reading as long as she keeps writing them.

Adam is the smart witch, the strategist, follow Coven 9 rules kind of guy and is put to the test while working to rescue Victoria Monzelle.   Tori, on the other hand, doesn’t trust Adam Dunne and wants nothing to do with him.  Well … that’s what she’s telling herself, her body, on the other hand, wants to be as close as possible to Adam.

The story plot of the series continues with the hunt for the Apollo drug and is filled with action, adventure, and love.  Don’t worry, like all of Rebecca’s books, there is a happily ever after for this amazing couple.

If you are a paranormal lover, then I would highly recommend both of her series.

More About Wicked Kiss

Working as an informant for the DEA, Victoria Monzelle is used to living on the edge. But she’s not a big fan of getting kidnapped. And definitely not by a bunch of bad boy witches with fancy-colored fire to shoot at people. So when Adam Dunne shows up and claims to be a witch enforcer, she’s not going to put her life in his hands based on his word, no matter how smooth and smart and beautifully Irish his words sound. But on the run from a tribunal of witches, she isn’t going to make it far . . .

Before she knows it, Adam’s word is all that stands between her and execution. Sophisticated, just-gotta-ruffle-him Adam has vowed to make her his one eternal mate, wild and unpredictable as she is—to save her from a sentence of certain death. But Tori isn’t interested in being anyone’s pity date. And if they think she’s unpredictable now, they should see what’s coming next . . .

Reading Order for Realm Enforcers Series: 

Wicked Ride (Book 1) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Edge (Book 2) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Burn (Book 3) Click here to read my review.
Wicked Kiss (Book 4)
Wicked Bite (Book 5) Coming August 1, 2017

Start at the beginning with the Dark Protectors Series:  (Read before the Realm Enforcers Series.)

Fated
Claimed
Tempted – Novella
Hunted
Consumed
Provoked
Twisted – Novella
Shadowed
Tamed – Novella
Marked

Find Rebecca Zanetti here: WebsiteFacebook, TwitterGoodreads.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley.

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

Fuel for Fire (Black Nights Inc. Book 10) by Julie Ann Walker #comingsoon

Fuel for Fire is Dagan (Z) Zoelner’s book in Julie Ann Walker’s Black Nights Inc. Series and will be releasing just in time for the 4th of July week! Fuel for Fire is a Contemporary Suspense Action-Packed Romance filled with strong men and equally strong women. Black Nights Inc. is one of my all time favorite series and should be read in book order.

Fuel for Fire releases on July 4, 2017, and is intended for readers 18 years and older.

fuel for fire

My Five Star Review:

Julie Ann Walker is the Master at story telling and this 10th book in her Black Nights Inc Series is another hit!!  The chemistry between Black Nights Operative Dagan Zoelner and CIA Agent Chelsea Duvall makes it a perfect read for the 4th of July week.  There is nothing better than a good book with a strong male character trying to come to terms with his feelings for an equally strong female.  It is truly a joy to watch these characters work through the chemistry and come out better people in the end.

The action continues with the quest to find out who “Spider” is.   Christian, Emily, and Ace join in on the action and we also get to meet Rusty.   Sparks do a little flying between Ace and Rusty which I’m going to love watching.  The continued sexual tension and banter between Christian and Emily made me laugh quite a few times.  I am very much looking forward to the next book in this series, Hot Pursuit (Christian and Emily’s book)  coming in October 2017.

I would highly recommend Fuel for Fire and the entire Black Night’s Inc. Series.  You will not be disappointed.

More About Fuel for Fire:

A brooding covert operative and a spunky CIA agent discover a burning passion in the next installment of Julie Ann Walker’s red-hot BKI series

Dagan Zoelner has made three huge mistakes
The first two left blood on his hands.
The third left him wondering…what if? What if he had told the woman of his dreams how he felt before his world fell apart?

Spitfire CIA agent Chelsea Duvall has always had a thing for bossy, brooding Dagan. It’s just as well that he’s never given her a second look, since she carries a combustible secret about his past that threatens to torch their lives…

Black Nights, Inc. Book Reading Order:

1 – Hell on Wheels – 
2 – In Rides Trouble
3 – Rev It Up
4 – Thrill Ride
5 – Born Wild – My Amazon Review
6 – Hell for Leather – My Amazon Review
7 – Full Throttle – My Amazon Review
8 – Too Hard to Handle – My Five Star Blog Review
9 – Wild Ride – My Five Star Review
10 – Fuel for Fire – Coming July 4, 2017
11 – Hot Pursuit – October 2017

Find Julie Ann Walker here:  InternetFacebookGoodreads, Twitter.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~ janisf