Cover Reveal Unshakable by Gigi Aceves

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

Title: Unshakable (Able Series #4)
Author: Gigi Aceves
Cover Reveal: October 9
Genre: New Adult
Hosted by: S.B.B. Promotions

The Wildflower and Her Shield

Sophia Andrews craves simplicity in the complex mosaic world of politics.

Damien Williams thrives in the complex environment of the Secret Service with great simplicity.

As their worlds collide, so do their feelings for each other.

Damien is her Shield. Sophia is his ever-rebellious Wildflower. His love and affection is her only wish and desire. Her safety is his prime concern. What happens when he tries to protect Sophia from the very world she exists in?

Will he choose his love for his job or his love for the woman he serves to protect? Will loving Damien hinder her own happiness? Can Sophia do what is expected of her, or will she take a stand?

Will the pomp that surrounds Sophia and Damien be the circumstance that will make their love UNSHAKABLE?

After growing up in the Philippines, I now live in California with my husband and two girls. My husband survived two bouts of cancer, AML Leukemia and Mucoid Carcinoma; hence, the inspiration for Unbreakable. I thank the good Lord for healing my husband, twice. It can’t get any better than that.

Our oldest, Andrea is a junior in APU. When she looks at my computer, the first thing out of her mouth is “Mom! What are you looking at? Dad!” Our youngest, Allysa is a freshman in high school. The few times she passed by me and looked over my shoulder when I was writing, her reaction was, “Mom! I’m telling dad!” There you have it; I have two double agents in my house. What happened to loyalty?

If my husband is the ying to my yang, Andrea is the Marlin to my Dory while Allysa is the Buzz Lightyear to my Woody. I love the beach, but I hate the sand; I love to travel, but I hate to fly; I love to eat but, I hate gaining weight (all women can relate to this); and so goes my little quirks in life.

Am I crazy? Well, the jury is still out on that one; however, I’d like to think if I can make one person smile with my craziness, it’s all worth it.

~ Hosted By ~

Who are the Rockettes?

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

The Rock Hard Romance Rockettes are our Facebook group, we can chat more openly in here without or family and friends seeing our love of hot guys and the smut we read. Feel free to join us – here!

The original Rockettes are four book lovers, Vicki, Shaz, Emma and Rose. They are the admins on Facebook, the reviewers on here and the general sharers of smut in the group. Find out more about them below.

Rose met Emma and Vicki at RARE 2014, and then Shaz at the Silver City Signing in Aberdeen in August 2015. There will be an Original Rockette meet-up sometime in the new year!

I’m Rose, Busy working Mum of 2 gorgeous girls, 3 all together if you count the man child that is my Husband.

I got in to reading Romance after reading The Secret Diary of a Call Girl by Belle De Jour. I’ve always read, its only in the last 8 years I’ve discovered smut.

I love everything from contemporary to dark. I struggle a little with paranormal, but if you have something you think could sway me, let me know.

I’m the first Rockette. I started the blog nearly two years ago but between work and family life I wasn’t getting as much as I wanted done. I asked my amazing friends who I have met at signings (who I speak to more than my friends I see everyday!) If they wanted to join. Its been AMAZING having them, Our blog is looking great and hearing the different ideas and general smut oh and not forgetting the pictures is a daily love of mine now.

This is the hard bit. Favourite authors. First is Jane Harvey- Berrick – I fan girled so hard, It took me nearly two hours to go up and just say hi at the RARE14 pre signing party. so glad I did. The queen of Alpha Kristen Ashley- Who I get to fan girl/ cry over in July.

A quick list of my musts read authors. Fisher Amilie, Tiffanie DeBartolo, Colleen Hoover, Jamie McGuire, Kylie Scott, Joanna Wylde, Bella Jewel, Belle Aurora, Aurora Rose Reynolds, L.A Casey, Tillie Cole, CJ Roberts, Penelope Ward, Harper Sloan, Jay Crownover (Rome is MINE) Tracey Garvis Graves, Samantha Young, S.C Stephens. Okay I’ll stop now or I won’t be able to stop. 🙂

Don’t be afraid to give us a message we’d love to help out however we can.

Hi, I’m a busy working mum who loves to read and be transported into someones imagination. I can read almost any genre but I’m happiest reading New Adult and Contemporary Romance. I’ll swoon over your hot alpha males. Ugly cry alongside your heroines. Laugh out loud at your humour and fan myself at your eroticism but I also love dark reads so don’t be afraid to pull me into the darkness. I like to visit there.

My favourite Authors are Kristen Ashley, Madeline Sheehan, Callie Hart, Tillie Cole, Pepper Winters, Ker Dukey, Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland, Belle Aurora and R L Mathewson to name but a few, however, I am always looking for new Authors to fan girl over.

I will always be honest in my reviews and I appreciate you sharing your hard work with me.

Shaz x

Hi Vicki here…After reading FSOG it opened up a whole different world of books to me,and as a result I have an ever-growing Book Boyfriend list…Biker’s/Alpha hotness/CEO’s/Rock Stars/Dark and twisted/M/M/Paranormal(some)/Hockey Players/ YA…there are probably others that I’ve missed but you get the idea!

As I say ‘Fantasy-land’ is way better than reality at times-and I am in awe of the authors I have come across over the last few years,and some I have had the pleasure of meeting in person at the signing events I have attended.I ‘popped my signing cherry’ (ahem) so to speak at RARE in Edinburgh in 2014..didn’t know what to expect but had an amazing day..met all the authors I wanted and also met some new friends,Rose being one of them!

This year two events..in April The Tattooed Bad Boys Signing at York and Shaz came with me to The Silver City Signing in Aberdeen,where again meeting old and new authors and like minded readers who’ve become friends.

I love a book that makes me laugh out loud,get emotional,pushes the boundaries,and where possible a good Epilogue! I will give an honest review,trying not to give spoilers!

Hey I’m Emma, newest Rockette on the blog. I’m a busy working mum who loves picking up a book whenever I get the chance. I love to read all kinds of romance books. I go through phases with favourites, a few weeks ago it was all about the ‘man sausage’ with M/M reads, followed by a week of paranormal (non sparkly vamps please!), then I decided I had to get stuck into my reading list for London and caught up with some old favourites, including YA/NA and erotic reads!

My go-to authors(those where the synopsis and cover don’t even matter) include: Harper Sloan (if I ever meet her, I’ll cry!), Madeline Sheehan, Kirsty Moseley, Ker Dukey, Tillie Cole, C.J Roberts, J.R Ward, Olivia Cunning and more recently Jane Harvey-Berrick (lets blame Rose for my new addiction)!

I love reading new authors and discovering new loves.

Finding Ever After (Ever After 1) by Stephanie Hoffman McManus (5*)

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

Reviewed by Vicki.

Out Now, purchase link below.

It’s been three years since she left everything she knew behind, but Jaxyn is finally done running, and returning home to Boston face the friends she abandoned without warning and the nightmare that still wakes her in the night.

Back in the childhood home that holds all of her memories from before life showed her that ‘happily ever afters’ don’t come easy, she is unsure of what the future holds. The one thing she definitely wasn’t expecting was Kyden McCabe, the hot, tattooed and pierced musician she meets her first night back.

All she ever wanted as a little girl was to be swept off her feet by a prince, but Ky is nothing like the heroes from the stories her mom used to read to her. He’s arrogant, frustrating and completely wrong for her. He lives his life one night stand at a time and she knows he’s nothing but trouble.

Still haunted by her past and afraid to let anyone see the scars she hides, she fights the attraction she feels for Kyden and wonders if she’ll ever find her storybook ending. Then a monster from her past threatens to rip away her chances before she realizes that maybe she already found it.

Content Advisory 17+ recommended

Finding Ever After (Ever After 1)

Vicki was given a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this story and the character’s created so much so that I ended up getting the other books in this ‘Ever After’ Series. It is not your typical Rock Star Romance.

Told from Jaxyn’s POV until the Epilogue which is from Kyden’s, It is a story which takes it time unfolding but I enjoyed the way the author wrote it.We don’t have the usual scenes there’s no un-planned pregnancies/secret child/drug use and it was a nice change from some of the other books I’ve read over the years.There are tears,laughter,sweet moments and character’s you will fall in love with (and a couple who you’ll be glad to see the back of!) Jaxyn and Kyden’s story is one that along with the rest of the series,I will re-read again. Although each can be read as a stand alone,it makes sense to read the whole series,as we do get more from each as the series goes on.

Reading Order is..

Finding Ever After
Chasing Ever After
Fighting Ever After (Kyden’s POV of Finding Ever After)
Saving Ever After
Risking Ever After (out on the 12th September)

Lev by Belle Aurora (5*)

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

Reviewed by Shaz

No Preorder available.

Release date TBA.

From the moment Lev Leokov spots the young woman hiding behind her hair in the middle of the gentleman’s club, he can’t take his eyes off of her.
For the very first time in his life, he is affected. Having been told his entire life that he can’t process or understand emotion, he considers it a big deal.

When Mina Harris gets caught red-handed with a wallet that isn’t hers, she falls apart. She’s tired, lonely and hasn’t eaten in days.

Lev offers her an ultimatum… A nice warm bed, a hot meal and a job, or the cops.

Mina takes her chances with Lev.
After all, a person with nothing has nothing left to lose.

***This book enters the world of the extended Leokov family which are introduced in Friend-Zoned, however, is unrelated…***

I kindly received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lev, plain and simple and I think I might have a girl crush on Mina too. I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. I sometimes feel bad when I leave 4 stars for a book I really liked but this is the reason I do it. For books like this, books that make me go “OMFG you have to read this”. Books that have me sitting up at 2am desperate for sleep but unable to part with the characters that the writer has made me fall in love with.
Lev is a beautiful flawed man. I don’t want to give too much away but I promise he will steal your heart.
“Love,” he advised gently, “is a doing word. And sometimes the people who least deserve it are the ones who need it the most.”

And Mina needs it.

Lev struggles to give himself over to her but her irrevocable love for him and the way she see’s him is a delight. She never falters or pushes him away and her journey into his heart is a pleasure to be part of.
‘Lev was a clink in my armour, a crack in my wall, and I just knew that if he really tried, I would open myself up to him completely in the hopes that he would do the same. I would do that for him. I would do that, because he was worthy’.

Her inner monolgue at times was also hilarious and not out of place or over used.
‘Where’s my damned kiss, Leokov?’

As always with Belle’s work the supporting characters are just as strong and she sets it up perfectly for what’s to come.

This is definitely a contender for my favourite book of the year and I can’t wait for the next installment from the Leokov Family.

Well Done Belle Aurora and thanks for the sleepless night. If you ever read this. Please can I be Lev’s penguin!!!!

Pretty When You Cry – Skye Warren (4*)

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

Shaz was kindly provided an ARC in return for an honest review.
Release Date: October 20th.
No Pre-order available.

A new dark romance novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderlust and Prisoner…

I came from a place of dirt floors and holy scriptures. They told me the world outside was full of sin, and the first night I escape, I find out it’s true. Ivan saves me, but he does more than that. He takes me. He makes me his own girl.

My conditioning runs too deep. Ivan sees what I am.

That’s the thing about showing a mouse to a cat. He wants to play. And it’s terrifying, even for me. Because the only thing darker than my past is his.

Skye Warren is a beautiful writer who isn’t afraid to guide you into the darkness, what’s more, she’ll make you want to stay there. Pretty When You Cry is the story of Candace. After growing up in a twisted religious community where her self esteem was stripped from her, she finally escapes and meets Ivan, being the terrified young girl she is,he takes her in and claims her for his own, all the while keeping her at arms length. Ivan is a hard man but it is obvious from the onset that he cares for Candace deeply.

There is no getting away from the fact he is down right mean to her a lot of the time but the reader is also aware that he would never let anyone harm her. Ivan holds Candy on a type of pedestal, denying himself the pleasure of her. Haunted by his own demons, Ivans dark and sometimes humiliating forms of play, inadvertently give Candace what she needs and build her up to be a strong, independent woman but now she wants more. She wants Ivan, all of him and she’s not going to settle for less.

Ivan is an intense and complex character and I would have loved to have delved further into his psyche, this book was crying out for Ivan’s POV, there were many times I would have loved to have known what he was thinking or why he did what he did and although this book is a standalone, I did wonder if there was more to come from Ivan.
All in all, this is a captivating read for lovers of dark romance and Skye does not disappoint.

Obscured by Tara Sue Me writing as Cat Waters (4*)

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

Obscured was given to Emma through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing October 12th 2015, pre-order link below.

There’s the truth you know….

At age 16, Athena Hamilton traded her body for survival when a powerful Vegas hotelier and pimp lured her into his world. Ten years of turning tricks has taught her to trust no one and feel nothing. Yet a chance meeting with a childhood crush sparks hope for something more.

The truth you believe…

There’s no way Isaiah Martin could want her. He’s a pastor. Too good. Too pure. But when she learns her days are numbered, she runs into the safety of his arms and trusts his promise of protection.

And the truth you never imagined…

The aftermath of a tragic accident and a bitter betrayal leaves her destitute and alone. The one man she shouldn’t trust offers her a chance to escape. But when good and evil collide, what do you do when the truth is Obscured? cover74815-medium

Obscured

I went into Obscured blind; I skimmed over the synopsis, the cover and Tara Sue Me was what drew me in.

Throughout the book there were twists and turns I never expected, it kept me wondering what would happen each time I turned the page. It was fast paced and quite enjoyable.

Athena Hamilton became a prostitute at 16 years old, after meeting Mike Randolph. After meeting an old friend 10 years later something within Athena breaks as she decides to run. This is when she find out the truth, truly is, obscured.

I found Athena to be a little bit flaky at times, but who can blame her when you read what she’s gone/going through. Her decisions at times had me shaking my head, thinking ‘you silly girl’.

Isaiah Martin, her old friend, tells her he is a pastor. When Athena makes the decision to leave, her path leads her to Isaiah once more. To begin with he was likable, a southern boy, all grown up, Athena can’t see he’s almost too good to be true.

There was a twist in the story, a good one in which Athena seemed to be on the way to getting her happy ever after.

Saying anymore would be a spoiler, so I’ll leave it there. Obscured was generally really good, 1* off for the flakiness of Athena and the fact it’s looking like a series but there was no mention of it.

The Air He Breathes – Reviewed by Shaz (4*)

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Rock Hard Romance

I was warned about Tristan Cole.

“Stay away from him,” people said.
“He’s cruel.”
“He’s cold.”
“He’s damaged.”

It’s easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster.

But I couldn’t do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me.

We were both empty.
We were both looking for something else. Something more.
We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays.

Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review and I have to say I was more than a little excited, I mean check out that cover for starters!

The Air He Breathes

I admit Brittainy C Cherry is a new author to me and I wasn’t sure what to expect but from the very beginning I was captivated by her writing. Brittainy has a natural flair with words creating beautiful sentences that read like poetry. This is a refreshing find in contemporary romance.

“We shared the same kind of laugh that was quiet, yet grew loud in the company of those we loved”

“I whispered his name, as if he could hear me, and I hugged the thought of him kissing me and holding me in his arms” but traditional lovers of new adult romance needn’t worry there is plenty of smouldering moments to satisfy your fantasies and have you thinking of Tristan long after you close the book “I can be rough. I can be gentle. I can make you scream. I can make you cry. I can fuck you so hard that you won’t be able to move. I can fuck you so slow that you’ll think I’m in love with you”

Tristan and Elizabeth have both suffered at the hands of heartbreak and your own heart will bleed right along with them as they struggle to overcome their demons, but their chemistry is evident. Elizabeth’s daughter Emma is heart warmingly adorable. Her best friend Faye is hilariously loveable (so much so I’m praying she gets her own book!) and there is enough twists and turns along way to keep you on your toes and stop the story becoming stagnant.

The only reason I have not awarded five stars is due to one element of the story that I just couldn’t relate to and wish it had been handled differently but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have already downloaded another of her offerings.
All in all, this is a no brainer one click piece of lit which will take you through every emotion possible and leave you thoroughly drained but satisfied.