Wrecked by Shiloh Walker is 50% off at $4.00 – which isn't a huge sale but is still pretty spiffy. It was a DABWAHA 2014 finalist, too. This is a contemporary romance about two former child stars, one of whom has been in love with the other for years. There's a cameo appearance by Wreck This Journal, too. In my review (B-) I wrote:
I was rooting for their relationship to change, and I was rooting for them both. Wrecked is a sweet and sexy story that, despite some repetitive flaws, was charming and fun to read.
In the nineties, Abigale Applegate and Zach Barnes were the most beloved sitcom child stars in the world. Then they grew up and left Hollywood behind…
Whatever happened to Abigale Applegate?
She's been wondering the same thing.
With her Hollywood dreams long gone, Abigale now has a nice, neat, uncomplicated life–until the day her perfect fiancé needs to talk. Dumped, a little more than shattered, and totally confused, Abigale turns to Zach, her best friend since forever, to help her pick up the pieces. He does it with a gift–a copy of Wreck This Journal. She can vent her frustrations, and sketch out a new plan. Zach just hopes he's part of it. Because he's been in love with Abigale his entire life.
When the journal falls into Zach's hands, he discovers Abigale wants a new man. And fast. Nothing more than a hot distraction. Zach has a strategy, too. He's going to be that man. It's his last chance. Abigale might be out to shake up her life, but Zach's out to reinvent it. Now, all he has to do is convince Abigale that life can go as planned.
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Love at First Sight by Lori Wilde is $1.99. This is the first book in Wilde's Cupid, Texas, series. If you guessed that this is small town contemporary, you are totally right!
Also, reviews give the warning that if you're expecting cowboys due to the dude wearing chaps and a cowboy hat on the cover, think again. The hero is a SEAL. Doesn't that dude totally look like a SEAL?
From the author of the Twilight, Texas books comes the first in a dazzling new Cupid, Texas series. Lori Wilde welcomes us to Cupid, where every wish for love comes true…
Natalie McCleary couldn't believe her eyes-a lean-muscled, darkly tanned, nearly-naked man stood in her path…and then it hit her: love. Everyone always told her it'd hit like a thunderbolt, and she never believed them. But now she knew: practical, sensible Natalie was head over heels in love-with a stranger.
But ex-Navy SEAL Dade Vega wasn't about to be a stranger for long. He'd ridden into Cupid on his motorcycle, vowing to keep a promise he'd made to a military buddy. But a single glimpse at Natalie-soaking wet and unexpectedly tempting-changed his life forever.
But how can he offer her is love, when he can't even promise to stay in one place for longer than a week?
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One Night with a Cowboy by Cat Johnson ($1.99) is another book that suffers from Ha ha, fooled you, not a cowboy romance syndrome. Despite pecs, abs, big buckles and a cowboy hat, the hero in this one is also in the military. He and the heroine meet at a rodeo, and she thinks he's a cowboy, but he's not.
I gave this book a D because of inconsistencies and a demand that I not only suspend disbelief but nail it to the ceiling. This book went straight to WTFery Land in the end, and while my review was not positive (it was populated with the prairie dog of Wait a Minute) if you like to read books that make you go, Wait, what?! this might make you very happy indeed. And given that there are many 4+ star reviews at GR, I might be in the minority in disliking the plot.
One Sweet Ride…
Oh yeah. A single look at the leggy blonde in the stands and Tucker Jenkins is ready to buck all night long. It’s time to forget all about his cheating ex and his usual hands off policy.
One Hot Night…
Becca Hart is an East Coast professor. Not a buckle bunny. But no degree can prepare her for the moves of the sexy bull rider she hooks up with at her first rodeo … Or the shock of finding him at her first Oklahoma State University staff meeting.
One Happy Ending…
Tuck knows it’s all about holding on, no matter how wild the ride. Now he just has to convince Becca that a rough start out of the chute doesn’t mean they aren’t a smokin’ combination …
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Blue Lines by Toni Aleo is a contemporary sports romance about a hockey team, and it's .99c right now. We had a good time examining the cover model's back because it looks like aliens or maybe surprise peens are hidden in the sculpted musculature. This is a story about a bad boy hockey star who has a one night stand with a 'good girl' and surprise! Pregnancy!
The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him–wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lie behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she's lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.
Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he's been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it's not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn't take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it's supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.
One Night with a Cowboy was unreadably bad. I tried it after I read the review here, because I’m a contrarian, and incapable of learning from mistakes, and I was sure I’d find it hilariously bad. It’s not. Plain old not good.
Can Blue Lines be read as a standalone? I like the oops baby trope but don’t feel like reading several other books first.
I have read all of Toni Aleo’s Assassin series in reverse, because that’s how I managed to stupidly get them from Overdrive, putting them all on hold at the same time, so yes, they can be read as standalones (although I really don’t recommend reading a series that way!).
Always room on the TBR for yet another friends-to-lovers book… thanks for the Wrecked wrecommendation. 😉
Thanks! I had just finished The Geek with the Cat Tattoo and thought Blue Lines sounded more fun to start with. Sometimes I just get in a mood for something specific. I usually always start with book one.
SEALS in cowboy hats? Mr. L has a theory (and there was a Bob Newhart show about it years ago) that all guys dream of the simple life of a cowboy. Maybe even SEALS do.
I’ve added Wrecked to my Wish List. Nothing like a little unrequited love.
thought I would check out Blue Lines but I’m only a couple of pages in and already not liking it.
Sample dialogue that I HATE with authors: “She said I could buy it from her if I wanted to. With having the twins now, and of course after building their new beautiful five-thousand-square-foot mansion, she said they’ve outgrown it.”
Because OF COURSE that’s how people talk. This sort of dialogue immediately takes me out of the story. I guess I’ll finish, we’ll see.
I also meant to add the whole “I’ll ask my sister to be my surrogate and immediately get offended when she says no despite never talking about this previously to see if that is something she would be interested in” is ridiculous. Because asking someone to CARRY A CHILD is a simple yes or no answer and “I would do it for you” is a dumb a** thing to say.
I read the first few chapters of One Night With a Cowboy and then immediately returned it to Amazon. I wish that I’d seen your review before I bought it, because then I wouldn’t even have wasted my time. The story’s whole setup was stupid and insulting. Tucker seemed borderline sociopathic and Becca was pretty much Queen of the Mary Sues. They were such one-note stereotypes. Wounded Oklahoma manwhore meets sheltered East Coast academic. What freaking ever. I didn’t even make it past their insipid, not-at-all-hot first meeting before I knew that this story held no appeal for me.