REVIEW TOUR, 4 STAR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Anatomy of a Player (Taking Shots #2) by Cindi Madsen

We're celebrating the release of Anatomy of a Player by Cindi Madsen!

Title: Anatomy of a Player

Author: Cindi Madsen 

Age: NewAdult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Entangled

Goodreads

This bad boy is about to get played…

After getting her heart broken by a player again, Whitney Porter is done with men. She’s focusing on her future career and her first assignment at the college newspaper: Posing as a sports writer for an exposé on the extra perks jocks receive. But Hudson Decker, the bad boy of the hockey team, is about to test her resolve. To keep herself from breaking her no-sex rule with the temptingly tattooed athlete, she decides to use him for a side project: Anatomy of a Player, to help Whitney—and women everywhere—spot a player, learn what makes him tick, and how to avoid falling for one.

With his life spiraling out of control, Hudson Decker’s looking for a distraction. When his teammates bet him that he can’t land the gorgeous but prickly new reporter, he accepts the challenge, boasting he’ll have her in bed by the end of the semester. But Whitney is so much more than Hudson expected, and soon enough, he’s in too deep. The last thing he needs is another complication, but staying away isn’t an option. One thing’s for certain: this girl totally throws him off his game.

My Review

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

Whitney's "playdar"is on the fritz. Her most recent boyfriend turned out to be a jerk and she has had it. She swears off men, at least the ones of the player variety, and basically begs for a job on the school newspaper. Her first job is to write an article on how athletes at her school get preferential treatment, as well as cover the hockey team, which is funny because she knows nothing about hockey. Whitney also takes it upon herself to make herself look less attractive because she feels that people will take her more seriously. 

As a member of the school's hockey team, Hudson is one of those people that gets preferential treatment, but personal problems and a heavy course load is stressing him out. When Whitney comes into the locker room after a game looking to interview the team, Hudson finds that he is intrigued by her. He accepts a bet (ugh!) from his teammates and starts on his journey to win Whitney over. 

I liked that Hudson and Whitney were friends at first. They were so comfortable with each other and had a great rapport. 

Once I trusted my voice, I said, “Now you know my nerdy secret. I love documentaries.”

“I can’t really comment on the nerdiness, can I? Because there were conditions against mocking it, and I’m afraid of what you’ll do to me if I cross you.” The teasing tone made it clear how little I scared him.

Too bad I couldn’t exactly say the same about him. He scared me in ways I couldn’t understand, even as I told myself I was controlling this situation by making him part of a study. That I was…

He slipped his fingers between mine, tightening his grip on my hand, and my heart relocated to my throat. Control the situation. Do…something.

I licked my lips. “Everyone’s got at least one nerdy thing about them,” I said, echoing what Lyla had told me. “What’s yours?”

I waited for the denial, or the smirk accompanied by a flirty “Don’t you want to know,” but he said, “Dinosaurs. I know a ridiculous amount about dinosaurs.”

“Really?” I asked, and he nodded, a boyish grin playing on his lips.

“Tell me more.”

“What’s there to tell?” He shrugged a shoulder. “Do you want to know the fastest dinosaur—Ornithomimids. Or that the biggest—well, the one with the most convincing evidence of being the biggest—is the Argeninosaurus?”

A lightness entered my chest, the floaty sensation making it impossible not to be sucked further into Hudson’s magnetic pull.“I did want to know that. So, when did you get hooked on dinosaurs?”

“For Christmas one year, a lady I knew gave me a huge book on them—I was about six or seven. They were big and tough, and I read that book over and over, until I had it memorized. After that, any money I had went to collecting dinosaur books and figurines.”

“Aw, that’s so cute.”

His dark eyebrows drew low over his eyes. “It’s not cute—dinosaurs are not cute. If we were at my place, I’d show you how scary my dinosaurs are—there are sharp teeth involved.”

“Wait,”I said, twisting so I could see his face better but also keep holding his hand. “You’re saying you have dinosaur figurines in your room right now?”

“It’s not like…I didn’t…There’s just one or two on my desk. They’re badass.”

I bit back a smile and nodded. “Got it.”

Whitney tried her bet to resist Hudson and was able to do it, but while she profiled him as a player, Hudson was much more than that. He opens up to her and tells her things that he has never told anyone. He ends up trusting her completely and it ends up backfiring, but not in the way you would think. 

I enjoyed this book, but it was the end that made me love it. Hudson makes a grand gesture that had me swooning all over the place. He may have been a player before he met Whitney, but she helped him realize that he wanted more. 

I love this series so far! We got a little Beck & Lyla (she is Whitney's roommate and Beck is Hudson's teammate) in this book as well as Dane, Hudson's roommate and teammate. The author creates great characters and I look forward to seeing what the author has for us next!

GIVEAWAY

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USA Today Bestselling author Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she'd be even crazier. She has way too many shoes but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they're sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children.

Visit her at www.cindimadsen.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter and learn about upcoming releases.

Cindi is the author of YA books All the Broken Pieces, Cipher, Rift, Resolution, and Demons of the Sun, and adult romances Falling for Her Fiancé, Act Like You Love Me, Resisting the Hero, Cinderella Screwed Me Over and Ready to Wed.

BLOG TOUR: Under Covers by Kayti McGee

Halfway through her first year on the job, Melissa Montclair decides the best part of teaching is winter break.

And the best part of break is the Perfect Ten she meets in a bar on New Year’s Eve. Why not celebrate a semester under her belt with a Perfect Ten in her pants? The one night affair is all she hoped for, until she walks into school a week later and sees Mr. Ten is Student Twenty-nine on her roll call.

She should be mortified—and she is—but that doesn’t stop her from banging him again. And again.

And again.

So much for job security.

Posing as an exchange student at Hamilton High is finally the assignment Officer Spence Vega has been hoping for. Now he has a shot at getting to the bottom of the town’s recent molly epidemic. There’s only a couple of problems: first, history is taught by the curvy bombshell he banged on New Year’s. Second, his growing suspicion is that she’s the dealer he’s looking for.

The job was supposed to be an easy in-and-out, not the teacher.

If only they could stop getting under the covers, staying undercover would be so much easier.

I run my hands across the small of her back softly, swaying against her as she arches into me. We are dancing without music, a sexy tango of clothes and lips. (See what I did there? Tango. Oh wait, that’s Argentina. Never mind.) And soon she is standing in nothing but lace. I run my hands over the swells of her breasts and relish in her gasps and moans. She's wound tight, and I plan to play her like a violin. (That one works much better.) Her bra drops to the floor, and she stands flushed and unashamed before me.

My teacher. Goddamn. I am going to go home and sponsor two more orphans.

"Take off your panties," I order.

She hooks her thumbs into the elastic and spins in a slow circle, leading with her ass. Slowly, she slides them down, her shapely ass still in the air, and lifts one leg at a time, my own private strip show. All we’re missing are the glasses and the chaste updo. Although, truly, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. She's totally bare, always a treat, and already I can remember her sweet taste on my tongue. I pick her up, and she wraps her legs around my waist, giggling as I spin her around. I set her on the island and kiss her cheeks, her neck, across her collarbone, and down to those tits I’ve been longing for.

Each nipple pebbles under the warmth of my tongue, like they were waiting for this very moment.

Like they were waiting for me. The two new orphans I promised to care for. She drops her head backwards and moans, encircling her arms around my neck. I secure her to me with my right arm and use my left hand to cup each breast as I adore it with my tongue. I can't stop thinking of what sheer perfection her body is. She smells like a honeycomb, tastes the same, and her skin is as soft as silk. Our bodies move together like they were made for one another, calibrated to the other exactly.

It's the most intimate moment I’ve ever shared with someone, and we haven’t even gotten to the sexing yet. I said I was riding a unicorn before, but this girl is a unicorn.

My cock begins to ache in anticipation, rising again to the challenge. I lay her down gently across the island, my own personal feast, and bend over her. I can’t stop my hips from moving as I kiss her again, and work my way back down her body. Past the delicious swells of her breasts, down the tight curves of her stomach, past her cunt smelling incredibly of her sex. I love on her legs and her calves, paying special attention to the tender skin behind her knees and on her upper thighs.

She growls playfully, wriggling her body each time my lips cross over the spot she wants me most, but I don't give in. Instead I give her a single long, slow lick down her blissfully pink pussy and return to her stomach, then back up to her breasts. Her nipples are tight nubs and I gently bite down on each.

"Tease," she breathes.

I only grin wickedly at her. After all, she’s the one who suggested that this last all evening.

"Lick me." She’s (impossibly) even sexier when she commands me.

"Only when you beg me." She might be my teacher, but I can show her a thing or two myself.

She shudders a little. "I never beg."

"Tonight you will."

 

 Kayti McGee is a former Kansas Citian who now follows the Royals from Colorado. Besides writing, her hobbies include travel, cooking, and all thing Whovian. She also writes as the latter half of Laurelin McGee. Like her co-author Laurelin Paige, she joined Mensa for no other reason than to make her bio more interesting.

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4 Star Review: Off-Limits Love (Hope Falls Novella) by Elisabeth Grace

Georgia Reynold's plan was easy. Travel to Hope Falls. Nail the interview. Fly back across the country and pack her bags to begin her new life.

You know what they say about best laid plans...

Everett Bishop has spent the last three years roaming the country, desperate to forget that one tragic night. When he meets his cousin's friend, he's reminded that life and love will always find a way of catching up with you--whether you're ready or not.

Georgia has no idea what the future holds, but she's hopeful it might include Everett. She's found the chink in his armor, but will he drop his shield and surrender?

USA Today Bestselling Author, Elisabeth Grace, brings a sweet and sexy story of two people who never meant to fall for one another to the Hope Falls Kindle World.

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My Review

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

I love Elisabeth's books so I was excited to see that she was coming out with a novella. I am unfamiliar with the Hope Falls series, so I made a point of asking if that made a difference. I was told that it didn't and I should be okay. And I was! 

Georgia is ready for a change. She is tired of living in a town where everyone knows her and her business. When her friend Deanna mentions that there is a job open in her town of Hope Falls, Georgia jumps at the chance. She goes out there for an interview, as well as a little R&R and meets Deanna's cousin, Everett. 

Everett is in town temporarily and to say that these two hit it off is a bit of an understatement. As soon as they meet it is quite clear that they are attracted to each other. They resist because it is a bad idea, but we all know how that goes.  ;-) 

I liked Everett and Georgia together. Their chemistry was off the charts, but they were also very playful. 

“So, what do I have to look forward to if I do well, teacher?” A grin pulled up one corner of his mouth.

“We’ll start simple. If you skate over to me, I’ll give you a kiss on the lips this time. The next time, I’ll move farther back, and if you make it to me, I’ll include some tongue. The time after that…maybe I’ll let you grope me if no one’s looking.” She winked. “You get the idea.”

Everett liked this playful side of Georgia. There was no doubt about it—this woman was as multifaceted as the surface of a diamond and just as rare and beautiful.

“Well then, I can guarantee you I’m about to receive an A—for effort, at least.” Without hesitation, he pushed off with his right foot and propelled forward. A little too hard, unfortunately. His arms thrashed at his sides as he tried to regain his balance, but it was of little use. He landed smack on his ass. But hey, at least he didn’t take her out with him.

Georgia’s hands flew up to her face to stifle her laugh. “Are you okay?” she mumbled through her red mittens.

“I appreciate your concern, and yes, I’m fine.” He awkwardly got to his feet, having to use the arm Georgia extended to help him. When he was standing again, he rubbed at the sore spot on his butt. “Now about that kiss.” He arched an eyebrow.

So adorable! The more time these two spend together, the more they realize that it could grow into more, but with both of their futures a bit unknown, they have to be willing to take the leap into a future with each other. 

This book is short and takes place in a book universe that is new to Elisabeth Grace, but it was so well done and made me curious about the rest of the series. There are some great secondary characters in this book and I can see myself going back to get caught up on the lives of the Hope Falls gang!

BLOG PROMO & GIVEAWAY: The Mother Road by Meghan Quinn

We're celebrating the release of THE MOTHER ROAD by Meghan Quinn! 

THE MOTHER ROAD by Meghan Quinn

NA Romantic Comedy

Release date: January 12, 2016

Cover Designed by: Meghan Quinn

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1IS4PFc

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NsK9jy

iBooks: http://apple.co/1OiGeq7

Kobo: http://bit.ly/22SrUOJ

Never in a million years would I have pictured myself as an axe-wielding, dragon lady, chopping up multi-colored flannel shirts into my very own plaid mulch. But here I am, chopping away my frustrations. 

It all started when my brother, Paul, convinced me to go on one last family road trip across the Mother Road with him and my dad.. Just like old times, right? Wrong. What Paul fails to mention is his best man, Porter, will be joining us, who just so happens to be my childhood crush and the man who broke my heart four years ago. 

What is supposed to be a fun, family bonding experience across Route 66 turns into a war of pranks, awkward moments and bathrooms full of dirty flannel shirts and day old beard clippings. Paul’s know-it-all attitude and Porter’s devilish charm brings me to the brink of my sanity on my seven day trek across the United States with three bearded men in a small 1980’s RV.

Celebrity beauty secrets

Since Marley is a beauty blogger living in Los Angeles, she is surrounded by celebrity beauty myths and secrets. In the book, she tests out some of these beauty secrets herself. Here are some of her suggestions:

1. Hey scaly bows, get some lotion!

Got some crust on those elbows? Don’t fret; it happens to the best of us. Lotion is a good quick solution but if you really want to break down the wall of shell-like skin, try wine! Warm up some water, drop some wine in it, and soak those elbows. They will be smooth as ever after you get them all boozed up!

2. No one likes a sludge head.

Product build up is the number one offender to poorly styled hair – not an actual fact. But, if you do have some product build-up, don’t worry, there is a way to vanish the sludge and gain some fresh follicles. Grab some beer! I would go for the cheaper stuff because your hair isn’t going to care if you’re treating it with a local microbrew. Pour it in a bowl, dip your entire head inside and then wrap your head in saran wrap to let it sit. After a quick rinse, your follicles will be singing you heavenly – albeit, somewhat drunk – praises.

3. Is that a freckle? Nope, it’s a blackhead.

Pesky little things, they have no right taking up residence on a lady’s face, but unfortunately they are the party crashers in the skin department. If you want to clear out those pores, take some baking soda and add it to some water or your moisturizer to form a paste – Ross Geller style. Apply to your face and let the paste sit for a bit before rinsing it off to find your skin fresher and clearer.

GIVEAWAY

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Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if "It's Raining Men" starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.

Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing... enter her first novel, Caught Looking.

Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!

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COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY: Some Sort of Love (Happy Crazy Love #3) by Melanie Harlow

Title: Some Sort of Love

Series: Happy Crazy Love #3

Author: Melanie Harlow

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cover Design: Jenn Watson, Social Butterfly PR

Cover Photo: Love N. Books

Cover Model: Franggy Yanez  

 Release Date: February 9, 2016

Blurb

On the surface, I have it all—a career I adore, a loving family, the Nixon metabolism but not the Nixon ears, and a salary that supports my lavish taste in designer shoes, fine wine, and lacy lingerie…but I have no one to share it with.

Until the day I run into him—my one night stand from college with the cocky smile, let’s-get-out-of-here eyes, and dirty, dirty mouth.

Levi Brooks is six feet four inches of hot bearded fantasy. A sexy single dad with broad shoulders, strong hands, and a fantastically big…heart. (I mean, it’s massive. And generous. And it pumps so hard… um. Sorry. Lost my place.)

But he lives for his son, and he's keeping me at a distance because he thinks I deserve someone better—a man who can give me more time, more attention, more of himself. He doesn’t believe he could ever be enough.

But he's wrong.

He’s everything.

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Excerpt

“So.” I glanced out the windows to the patio. “You want to go back out there?”

“Not really,” she said.

“You want to get out of here?”

She grinned. “Yeah. I do.”

I watched her rush up the stairs to get her things, and as soon as she was out of sight, I adjusted myself in my pants. My dick had jumped to life the second she said yeah, I do, as if the question had been you want to get naked and fuck? rather than something much less suggestive. Not that I didn’t want to get naked and fuck—hopefully I’d last a little longer than I had in the broom closet eleven years ago—but I didn’t want to make her feel like that’s what I expected. She wasn’t a horny nineteen-year-old college student anymore; she was a doctor, for fuck’s sake. She was beautiful and smart and mature and sophisticated, and a woman like her did not want some Neanderthal who probably needed a haircut and a new pair of shoes to throw her up against a wall for a five-minute fuck.

A woman like that deserved attention all night long. She deserved someone who would undress her slowly and delight in each new inch of her skin as it was revealed. Someone who would run his hands all over her body and find out where she liked to be touched, how she liked to be touched, what she wanted to hear whispered to her in the dark. Someone who would wrap those gloriously long legs around his neck and use his tongue until she begged for his cock, then use his cock until she begged for mercy.

Fuck. I could be that guy.

Except I couldn’t be. Not tonight. Because I wasn’t a horny college student anymore either—I was just a horny single dad who didn’t have the luxury of taking a woman home and lavishing all my time and attention on her the way I wanted to.

As soon as I had the thought, I felt guilty. Scotty was the love of my life and always would be, and whenever I felt the slightest bit resentful about something I couldn’t do because of him, that resentment was immediately crushed by shame. He didn’t ask to be born wired differently, into a terrible relationship, to a mother who would decide she couldn’t handle being a parent, to a father who wasn’t prepared for any of it. He was completely innocent, and he needed me to be a better man.

Running a hand through my hair, I exhaled and wondered if I should ask Jillian for a raincheck on a night when Scotty’s usual sitter could be there. If he woke up again and I wasn’t home yet, he might never get back to sleep. We’d be up all night, tomorrow would be miserable, and the whole start to the week would be off.

But she was so beautiful. And I hadn’t been this attracted to someone in so long.

“Fuck,” I muttered, checking my watch. What was the right thing to do? If she were a different sort of woman, if her brother-in-law weren’t my friend and client, if we lived three states apart…if any number of circumstances were changed, I’d grab her hand, drag her out to my car, and spend the next thirty minutes fucking her brains out in the back seat. It would feel so good to take control that way, to lose control that way, to release some of this fucking tension. But was that fair to her?

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

“Hello?”

“He’s up again.” Monica’s voice was strained, and in the background I heard the familiar keening of a nighttime meltdown. My chest hurt, the way it always did when Scotty was upset.

“Shit. OK, I’m on my way. Twenty minutes, OK? Thirty at the most.”

“OK.”

“Tell him he can play on his iPad.”

“That’ll just rile him up more. He’s tired. He needs to go to sleep.”

I clenched my fist. “Just do it, OK? It will help calm him until I get there.”

As I ended the call, I heard footsteps above, and then Jillian appeared at the top of the stairs carrying a small suitcase. I watched her descend, the tightness in my chest growing. Also the tightness in my pants. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said, her face concerned as she reached the ground and saw my expression. She set down the suitcase. “What’s up?”

Sighing, I put my phone back in my pocket. “I have to get home. Scotty woke up and he’s upset.”

“Oh.” She tried to hide it, but I saw the disappointment in her eyes.

“I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“That’s OK. I understand.”

“Can I call you?”

“Of course.” She smiled, and her lips looked so soft and inviting, I took a step closer.

If you kiss her, it will be that much harder to leave.

I knew it was the truth, but I couldn’t help myself. One kiss. Just one. And then I’ll go. I moved even closer and took her head in my hands.

The curve of her smile deepened. “What are you doing?”

“I’m thinking about kissing you.”

“Stop thinking.”

I lowered my lips to hers and let them rest there, fully intending the kiss to be short and sweet, just a goodnight.

But I couldn’t break it off. I wanted more—I wanted to taste her. Slanting my head, I changed the angle of the kiss, teasing her mouth open with mine, slipping my tongue between her lips. A little sigh escaped her, and my dick jumped to life again.

You have to go, you have to go, you have to go.

But her hands were moving up my chest and my fingers were sliding into her soft brown hair and I could smell something sweet and citrusy on her skin and it mingled with the taste of whiskey on my tongue and oh God, I wanted my tongue everywhere on her body. I wanted make her come with it just so I could hear that little sigh again and again and again. And I wanted to feel my hands in her hair just like this while she got on her knees and took my cock between her lips, looking up at me with those big blue eyes…

Groaning, I forced myself to take my lips off her before I completely lost my senses. “God, I wish I could stay,” I said, resting my forehead against hers. “I wish a lot of things.”

“I know.” She played with my tie again. “I wish I was taking this tie off you, not straightening it.”

“What a coincidence, that’s one of my wishes too.”

She laughed and kissed me quickly. “Another time, maybe. You better go.”

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Author Bio

Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. When she's not writing or reading, she gets her kicks from TV series like VEEP, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Homeland. She occasionally runs three miles, but only so she can have more gin and steak.

Melanie is the author of the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series, the FRENCHED series, and the sexy historical SPEAK EASY duet, set in the 1920s. She lifts her glass to romance readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

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REVIEW TOUR & 4 STAR REVIEW: Between Shadows (Assassins #1) by Chanel Cleeton

Between Shadows

by Chanel Cleeton

January 19, 2016

An Assassins Novel

Thriller

BOOK SUMMARY

A sexy new thriller about love and revenge from the author of the Capital Confessions and International School series… 

X lives by three rules: Show no weakness. Trust no one. Don’t get caught. She lives by the rules they gave her. 

The Academy—set in London, shrouded in secrecy—it trains spies, computer experts, and assassins. Their mission? Dispensing justice and altering the course of world politics. Or so they think. In a world where secrets are weapons and some kills are impossible to forget, everything X thought she knew about her life is about to change. 

They taught her to fight. To blend into the shadows like a ghost, to operate on the fringes of society, to change her identity with ease. They taught her to kill. 

She’ll need every skill they taught her, to stay alive.

BOOK LINKS

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My Review

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

Chanel's Capital Confessions series was one of the best I read last year. I was intrigued when I read this synopsis because it was so different from that series. The last book had a little bit of action and intrigue and I really enjoyed that, so I was looking forward to reading Between Shadows. 

My name is X. My favorite color is black. I’ve killed more men than I’d like to count.

Alright then. You have my attention. 

X is an assassin. Along with her sister Grace, the two of them attend The Academy, a school that produces the best spies, computer experts, and assassins. While Grace is one of the computer experts, it is made clear from the very first chapter that you do not mess with X. She is the best of the best when it comes to being an assassin. 

When Luke, someone from X's past, comes back and basically shatters every notion she has about The Academy, she is forced to go against everything she knows. Once her sister is sent to safety (which, for lack of a better phrase, is a little bit of side plot that I found to be quite interesting), the plan is set in motion. As they try to bring The Academy down secrets are revealed and painful memories are brought to the surface. There are even a couple surprise reveals (one had me saying "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?) along the way. X has to figure out who she can trust and if Luke is one of those people. 

In between all the ass kicking and spy stuff there is a sweet love story. To say that Luke and X's relationship is complicated, is a bit of an understatement. They had this wonderful tension that I would describe as sexual, but I also found myself wondering if one would turn on the other (I kept picturing Brad and Angelina in Mr. & Mrs. Smith).

“Why are you back?” 

I stare into his eyes, waiting for his answer. Trying to solve the mystery that has always been Luke. I’m good at reading people, but I’ve never been able to read him. Maybe because he always mattered more than he should.

“I had unfinished business.”

“I’m better than I used to be.”

A slow smile spreads across his lips. It’s a dangerous smile, one that starts on his face, and yet strangely, I feel it through my body like a shock.

Fuck.

“I’ve always liked a challenge.” He leans down, his lips brushing against my ear, the whisper so low I strain to hear it.

“Game on.”

He hovers there, too close for comfort, his scent filling my nostrils and my mind with memories. For a moment, he presses against me—it’s fleeting, but it’s enough—enough for me to feel the power beneath his clothes, his cock hard against my hip—enough to make me crave, my body swaying slightly as it moves into his embrace with an ease that terrifies me. Suddenly he pulls back, releasing me, turning from me without missing a beat. He walks away, his strides long, his gait carefree, leaving me standing there, wanting him, hating him, confused as hell.

It’s still early out; thankfully, we didn’t draw much of a crowd. The news that Luke is back will spread through the Academy like wildfire; he always did attract attention nearly as much as I avoided it. He’s dangerous, brash, bold. Everything I could never be. Not with Grace. He’s too much of a risk—for her, but mostly for me—

He wasn’t just my first kill. He was my first everything.

Like I said....it's complicated. 

If you are a fan of Chanel's, then you should definitely read this book and I look forward to ready any subsequent books in the series. Especially if they involve Luke and X. 

Praise for the novels of Chanel Cleeton:

"Sexy, funny, and heart-wrenching--this book has it all!" - Laura Kaye, New York Times bestselling author 

"A sexy hero, strong heroine, delicious romance, sizzling tension and plenty of breathtaking scandal. I loved this book!"--Monica Murphy, New York Times bestselling author

"A sexy fighter pilot hero? Yes, please. For anyone who's ever had a Top Gun fantasy, Fly With Me is for you."--Roni Loren, New York Times bestselling author of Call On Me

"A sassy, steamy, and sometimes sweet read that had me racing to the next page."--Chelsea M. Cameron, New York Times bestselling author 

"Scorching hot and wicked smart, Flirting with Scandal had me hooked from page one! Sizzling with sexual tension and political intrigue, Cleeton weaves a story that is as complex as it is sexy. Thank God this is a series because I need more!"--New York Times bestselling author Rachel Harris

"Sexy, intelligent, and intriguing. Chanel Cleeton makes politics scandal-icious."--USA Today bestselling author Tiffany King

"Fun, sexy, and kept me completely absorbed."--Katie McGarry, author of Nowhere But Here

Originally a Florida girl, CHANEL CLEETON moved to London where she received a bachelor’s degree from Richmond, The American International University in London and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever, until fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise and a fighter pilot with smooth dance moves swept her off her feet. Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure.

Law school made Chanel realize she’d rather spend her days writing sexy stories than in a courtroom, and she hasn’t looked back since. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she’s happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, her three pups, and her husband. 



Chanel writes contemporary romances, women’s fiction, and thrillers. She is published by Harlequin HQN, Penguin/InterMix, and Penguin/Berkley and is the author of the International School, Capital Confessions, and Wild Aces series.

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