Thursday, May 31, 2018

Rough Edge by CD Reiss Blog Tour


"Unzip that dress before I shred it."

You married a decent man.
A rock solid, arrogant war hero who knew exactly who he was and what he wanted. He wanted you, and you gave yourself to him.

You are his only desire—the only woman in his orbit—but the intensity of that desire is turning dangerous.

Love may be the death of both of you.

New York Times Bestselling author CD Reiss brings raw intensity to a couple so in love, they'll make the darkest of sacrifices to save each other.

Author’s Note: Rough Edge is the first book of four, with a prequel titled  Cutting Edge.
It's an epic, intense, love story with some dark elements that could freak out some readers. I encourage you to read the reviews carefully in order to determine if this book is for you.

Add to Goodreads –


Book 1
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo




In the dark, during the fundraising video, she leaned into me, taking my hand. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Caden.” My name was more than a statement. It was a comment on how well she knew the animal, and how well she loved it.

If eyes could listen, hers did, gazing at me in the darkness. I couldn’t lie to her for much longer.

The entire invite list was watching the video. The bar was empty. The hallway lights were dimmed. The kitchen staff moved constantly and quietly to set up the buffet.

I laced my fingers in hers. She had a gold band we’d gotten out of expediency. No big sparkling rock. No sign I’d ever courted her properly before marrying her.

My father always said a man didn’t skip steps if he wanted to do something once.

I slid my cheek to hers and whispered in her ear, “I want to destroy you.”

Her hand tightened in mine so tightly I could feel our bones. Her glands must have fired, because the apples and the perfume melded and became something so uniquely her my balls ached—but not for simple release. For something more. An agreement of ownership.

Waiting wasn’t an option.

Pulling her by the hand, I headed for the hallway.

“Caden,” she said when we were away from the event, “slow down.”

I didn’t. I couldn’t. I pulled her down the carpeted steps to the lower level, stepping over a velvet rope at the bottom. The lights were out in the hall. Three doors led to three empty event rooms.

“What’s with you lately?” she asked.

“Are you saying no?”

“I’m asking a question.”

I backed into one of the rooms and pulled her in. It was dark but for light coming from under the doorways on each side. I walked in deeper, eyes adjusting quickly enough to avoid the tables and stacks of chairs on wheeled dollies.

“So am I.” I faced her. “Are you saying no?”

“What are you hoping I’ll say yes to?”

“I’m going to pull that dress up until I can get to these hard nipples.” I pinched them through the dress and she gasped. “Then I’ll bend you over one of these tables and fuck you so hard walking’s going to hurt. Are you saying no?”

“I’m not. But I want to know what’s going on with you.”

“Pull your dress up before I shred it.”




Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Kris☆☆☆☆☆
Floored. That's what I am after finishing this book. Completely Floored. What a great story with a make-me-bang-my-head ending! C.D. Reiss writes the best, dark and rough, sadistic men AND the women who love submitting to them.

Caden and Greyson are both ex-military, Caden's an amazing heart surgeon, Greyson's a psychiatrist specializing in PTSD. They're finally both home after tours in Fallujah and they're trying to start their civilian married life together. Except, Caden isn't quite the same man he was while in the service and Greyson, forever the psychiatrist, is trying to understand what happened to her staunch and confident but loving soldier. Caden has become sadistic in his desires. He's dominating and controlling, feeling, and needing to physically hurt Greyson while he ravishes her. It doesn't help (hurt?) that Greyson is finding that she loves it, every single bruising and bondaged moment! Greyson and Caden are embarking on a sadist-masochist relationship completely unbeknownst to them. Never really knowing that the other had such dark desires, they seem to push and pull it out of each other. The revelations and conciliations that both characters have to deal with while trying to find a new balance in their marriage really make for some awesome page turning goodness.

Can they continue to live like this – can Greyson trust Caden not to truly harm her? Can Caden keep on with the demon he thinks lives inside of him and the guilt of what soothes him? Hope to find out in book two, BABY! Can’t wait!! Complete page turner.






CD Reiss is a New York Times bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn't pick up she's at the well hauling buckets.

Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master's degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere but it did give her a big enough ego to write novels.

She's frequently referred to as the Shakespeare of Smut which is flattering but hasn't ever gotten her out of chopping that cord of wood.

If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.


Connect with Christine

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Rough Edge (The Edge #1) by CD Reiss to read and review for this tour.

Hooked on You by Kate Meader


The steamy Chicago Rebels series returns with this racy and sassy tale of embittered hearts, second chances, and going for the goal—on and off the ice.

Violet Vasquez never met her biological father, so learning he left his beloved hockey franchise—the Chicago Rebels—to her is, well, unexpected. Flat broke and close to homeless, Violet is determined to make the most of this sudden opportunity. Except dear old dad set conditions that require she takes part in actually running the team with the half-sisters she barely knows. Working with these two strangers and overseeing a band of hockey-playing lugs is not on her agenda…until she lays eyes on the Rebels captain and knows she has to have him.

Bren St. James has been labeled a lot of things: the Puck Prince, Lord of the Ice, Hell’s Highlander... but it’s the latest tag that’s making headlines: washed-up alcoholic has-been. This season, getting his life back on track and winning the Cup are his only goals. With no time for relationships—except the fractured ones he needs to rebuild with his beautiful daughters—he’s finding it increasingly hard to ignore sexy, all-up-in-his-beard Violet Vasquez. And when he finds himself in need of a nanny just as the playoffs are starting, he’s faced with a temptation he could so easily get hooked on.

For two lost souls, there’s more on the line than just making the best of a bad situation… there might also be a shot at the biggest prize of all: love.


Add to Goodreads –


Book 4
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary Jo☆☆☆☆
I've been waiting for this book for ages and couldn't put it down once I started.

The way that Violet and Bren have been dancing around each other has been entertaining to say the least, but the way that they look at each other when they think no one is watching is smoking hot.

Bren really steps up to the plate when Violet has a medical scare that leaves her overwrought and emotional. That's when you know he cares. He's done a lot of things that could have ended his career and has been walking the straight and narrow for quite a while. Yet when he finds out that Violet went to the doctor alone, he runs out of practice because he thinks that she doesn't need to be alone. He'll take the scolding from the team so that Violet will have support. That says it all.

Violet really likes Bren, but she's never been enough for anyone, including her father or her mother, so why should she think she'd be good enough for Bren. After all, he's a HAF hockey player and she's damaged goods. After all, the big C didn't only take her confidence, it took her breasts as well.

Watching Violet come to terms with her sisters and seeing Bren finally shake the mistakes of his past makes this book very special. I can only hope that we see more of the Rebels in either a spin-off or novellas because I truly hope that Kate Meader isn't through with this world she's built.


Sarah☆☆☆☆☆
Violet’s book is the perfect end to a new favourite series. I knew her story was going to be good – and it is fabulous. It is full of good feels – I was a blubbering mess after only a few chapters and it was impossible to put down.

This should be a heavy story. Violet is a cancer survivor who falls hard for Bren, a recovering alcoholic. But while Bren is a properly dour Scotsman, Violet’s quirky warmth and her irrepressible attitude bring humour and a sense of playfulness to a book that could otherwise have been a difficult read. And although I usually hate kids in romance, I have to admit that Bren’s daughters also add humour and joy to the story.

Beyond Bren and Violet’s story, this is also the final book about the Chase sisters and the Rebels hockey team. At the end of the season, the three women have brought their team of hopeless underdogs to the playoffs and the Stanley Cup is within their grasp. This final book is about the relationships between the sisters, the relationships between teammates, and the sense of family that has taken them all by surprise.

I loved this series from the start and it just keeps getting better across the four books. I love reading about strong, interesting women and I love that this series is as much about the relationships between the three estranged half-sisters as it is about the sisters’ romances. And there is enough hockey action to keep the interest of serious fans. And for me, this is finally a hockey romance series without the tired alpha male/vulnerable female character tropes that I find troubling. I love this series and I love how Violet’s story ties all the loose threads together in a perfect conclusion.


Ruthie☆☆☆☆☆
5 stars – like every other book in the series – but possibly my favourite of all!

This is book three, the last sister's love story – but there is a 2.5 addition to the series giving us Dante Moretti's love story, which is also a fabulous read. I would highly recommend that you read them in order, as there are underlying themes and plots which you would benefit from knowing. They are all really good books, so it will be no hardship.

Violet has been the sister on the sidelines all through the series, and now that the team and her inheritance are safe, she could leave. This is very disquieting for her, as she intended to feel nothing and just walk away, but over the months she has become close to her half-sisters. She also has not got over her strong attraction to Bren St. James – unrequited, but present nonetheless. Kate Meader has saved their story for last, and I loved every second of them working through their own issues, and those which they imagine they cause each other. There are so many wonderful, laughable, tear-inducing, sexy, moving moments, I can't begin to explain. It is in the small details, which explain so much whilst saying so little. Cade, Harper, and Isobel also manage to repay the interferences that ensured that they also found their happily ever after.

As well as getting a beautiful and much deserved happy ending for Violet, Bren, Cat, and Franky, we get to see everyone's story rounded out – and most excitingly of all, we get lots of lovely, successful hockey games which culminate in the ultimate success that they all desired and deserved. So they brought to fruition their father's dream, and succeeded where he failed. Truly a beautifully executed series, thank you Kate Meader.


Also Available in the Chicago Rebels Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our stop on the Irresistible You Release Blitz.


Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our So Over You post.


Book 3
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our Undone by You post.




Originally from Ireland, USA Today bestselling author Kate Meader cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Harlequins thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.

Connect with Kate

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Google+  ~  Instagram


http://www.simonandschuster.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Hooked on You (Chicago Rebels #4) by Kate Meader to read and review.

Then There Was You by Miranda Liasson


Welcome to Angel Falls, a town so delightful even enemies can't help falling in love!

Angel Falls is the last place Sara Langdon wants to be. Her hometown may be charming, but it's also filled with memories of her "wedding-that-never-was." Yet Sara's grandmother needs her, and joining her dad at his medical practice gives Sara time to figure out what she wants for her future. But when her first patient turns out to be Colton Walker, the man who sabotaged her wedding, Sara starts to wonder if she'll ever be able to escape her past.

As police chief, Colton Walker is devoted to his small town, and he's equally determined to avoid its newest resident. He and Sara have always gotten along like oil and water, and since the bachelor party incident, he's her Enemy #1. But after sharing an unexpected--and unexpectedly hot--kiss, Colton starts to wonder if the woman he's always fighting with is the one he should be fighting for.

Add to Goodreads –


Book 1
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary Jo☆☆☆☆
Sara wasn't sure she wanted to return her hometown but when her Nonna was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she knew she had no choice. She left a year ago with her head down and shamed because her fiancé called off the wedding the day before.

Colton has always thought highly of Sara and when she moves back to town, he wants to make a move. The only thing is that Sara blames him for her ex leaving her. Colt's done a lot of things, but he's not taking the blame for Tagg's straying.

As Sara and Colt work out their past issues, they both realize that what you really want may be standing right in front of you but it still takes a lot of time and effort to make it work.


Veronica☆☆☆
Then There Was You is an enemies-to-lovers, small town romance between the doctor (Sara) and a cop (Colton), so for me, the story had a lot going for it before it even began. As I read the book, I liked the family aspects to the story and the small town setting where everyone knows everyone else and their business. I liked Sara’s struggle to gain her father’s respect in the workplace and the way that Colton serves his community as the local police chief.

But from Sara’s first interaction with Colton, we can feel real animosity and hurt on Sara’s part over the way that Colton treated her in the past and this really stuck with me. So as the story develops and we see Colton is a good guy in the here and now (and he really is a good guy), it took me a long time to warm up to him. Then, just when I start liking Colton, he does something weak and stupid and I was back to disliking him.

Sara and Colton’s road to happiness is a rocky one but it has a satisfying conclusion. Then There Was You is an enjoyable read and has plenty of good elements and romance but my dislike of Colton probably kept me from loving this book as much as I thought I would.



Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves, because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner and an Amazon bestselling author whose heartwarming and humorous small-town romances have won accolades such as the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and have been Harlequin Junkie and Night Owl Reviews Top Picks.

She lives in the Midwest with her husband and three kids in a charming old neighborhood which is the inspiration for many of the homes in her books.

Connect with Miranda

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Google+  ~  Instagram


http://forever-romance.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Then There Was You (Angel Falls #1) by Miranda Liasson to read and review.

It's All About the Duke by Amelia Grey


Nearing thirty, the Duke of Rathburne is finally ready to make amends for the wager that caused him and his best friends such scandal―but taking on a ward who needs a husband is a feat he’s not sure he can manage. The last he saw of Miss Marlena Fast, she was a spirited little ruffian, not the sort of bride most bachelors on the marriage mart sought. But one glance at the lovely lady she has become is enough to convince him otherwise…

Orphaned young and shuffled from family to family, Marlena counts on her fierce independence and quick wits to keep herself content. Being the responsibility of a notoriously wicked duke who upended so many lives is an unexpected challenge when she realizes he arouses her decidedly feminine desires. Marlena must be careful. She has her own scandalous secret to protect. If he finds out, will it shatter her chances of a happily-ever-after with the notorious rake?

It's All About the Duke is the next Regency romance in The Rakes of St. James series from Amelia Grey.

Add to Goodreads –


Book 3
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica☆☆☆
I was highly anticipating this installment, after handing out a 5-star rating to To the Duke, with Love. While this is a continuation, and it will benefit the reader to start at the beginning of the series and read in order, there would be little to no confusion if read as a standalone.

I will admit, I struggled throughout the course of the novel with keeping my interests. I was able to read a chapter here or there until completion, and this may have affected my overall enjoyment. However, I did read the first 40% in one sitting.

The pacing was a big issue for me. It starts off molasses slow. While I enjoyed Marlena and Rath's narration, my pet peeves were popping out everywhere. Their initial meeting took almost 20% of the book, filled with conversation, inner musing/monologues breaking up dialogue, excessive description which also interrupted the flow of conversation, and eye-humping each other while thinking about how amazingly beautiful/handsome the other was.

Attraction is definitely what I expect from an initial meeting, but this was too close to self-admitting being in love. While this took a great portion of the novel, it was literal minutes of their lives.

Rath was a naughty boy in the past, he and the heroes of the previous installments. Wagering on ladies and treating them less than human. They've all learned the error of their ways, character growth. He is now picking up the duty of introducing his new ward to the ton for a season. Rath, the insulter of ladies, will be protecting one – I loved the juicy irony of that.

Marlena is an orphan, but also a grown woman. After witnessing how naughty men treated the fairer sex, she penned Miss Honoria Truth. In the previous installments, I loved the witty, feminist bent to the little ditties scattered throughout the series, and I just couldn't wait for the author to narrate a book of her own.

Marlena fell short of my expectations. I felt she was too focused on the vapid, outside package of Rath's, when I expected more from her. She was always mooning (inside her head) over how handsome he was, reminding the reader every few paragraphs, as if we could somehow forget Rath's impressive attributes. It felt shallow, as if Marlena was not the Miss Honoria Truth I'd come to love – entertainer and avenger of ladies everywhere.

In a nutshell, I'm a sucker for a guardian and his ward entanglement. Added to the fact he was a reformed reprobate and she was the one who took him to task in the media, sparks should have been flying everywhere. But it all felt forced, due to the pacing, repetition of inner monologue via both narrators, and description breaking up every conversation to be had and any and all action scenes.

I do believe it was a solid installment of the series. These are my pet peeves that made it difficult to enjoy the novel. If we don't share these same issue, no doubt you will highly enjoy it. I do recommend to fans of the author and the series.


Also Available in The Rakes of St. James Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our Last Night with the Duke post.


Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our To the Duke, With Love post.



New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Amelia Grey read her first romance book when she was thirteen and she’s been a devoted reader of love stories ever since. Her awards include the Booksellers Best, Aspen Gold, and the Golden Quill. Writing as Gloria Dale Skinner, she won the coveted Romantic Times Award for Love and Laughter and the prestigious Maggie Award. Her books have sold to many countries in Europe, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, and most recently to Japan. Several of her books have also been featured in Doubleday and Rhapsody Book Clubs. Amelia is the author of twenty-five books. She’s been happily married to her high school sweetheart for over thirty-five years and she lives on the beautiful gulf coast of Northwest Florida.

Connect with Amelia

Facebook  ~  Google+  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads




http://www.stmartins.com/


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of It's All About the Duke (The Rakes of St. James #3) by Amelia Grey to read and review.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Too Wilde to Wed by Eloisa James


No one is more surprised than Lord North when he returns from war to find his ex-fiancée in his ancestral home... working as a governess in a sexy, fiery new Wildes of Lindow Castle romance by New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James...

The handsome, rakish heir to a dukedom, Lord Roland Northbridge Wilde—known to his friends as North—left England two years ago, after being jilted by Miss Diana Belgrave. He returns from war to find that he's notorious: polite society has ruled him "too wild to wed."

Diana never meant to tarnish North's reputation, or his heart, but in her rush to save a helpless child, there was no time to consider the consequences of working as a governess in Lindow Castle. Now everyone has drawn the worst conclusions about the child's father, and Diana is left with bittersweet regret.

When North makes it clear that he still wants her for his own, scandal or no, Diana has to fight to keep from losing her heart to the man whom she still has no intention of marrying.

Yet North is returning a hardened warrior—and this is one battle he's determined to win.

He wants Diana, and he'll risk everything to call her his own.

Add to Goodreads –


Book 2
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
Avon Romance



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica☆☆☆☆☆
Too Wilde to Wed had a more focused, less chaotic feel than its predecessor, which is why I couldn’t put it down until I reached the end. The Wildes of Lindow Castle has a very large cast, at times becoming overwhelming to keep who is who straight. However, I could see how the novel would be easily read as a standalone, even if I feel it best to start with Wilde in Love.

Opening with a short prologue, the reader is given vital information in a way that made it easier to fall into the story and place the events that led up to the current place in the timeline.

Women didn’t have many options, seen more as possessions than human beings, whether the possession be to one’s parents or their husband. Diana was a woman trapped, one who ran and for altruistic reasons. Diana’s view of herself and the world are tainted by the mental and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, while suffering debilitating grief.

North is a man who doesn’t fit into the role of a duke-to-be, having come back from war with a different mindset. He’d fled after being jilted by Diana and came back a more enlightened man.

This book could have gone in an uncomfortable direction had North held resentment toward Diana. North is quick to accept apologies, see the error of his own ways, and is easy-going compared to his commanding personality. This made reading more pleasant, as the emotions of it were already darker.

To be honest, this novel is filled to the brim with romantic tension, but it’s the numerous conversations that North and Diana share that creates intimacy, which makes their connection feel beyond real.

Instead of focusing on every other character, the focus is on North and Diana forming a bond during interactions, while showcasing the youngsters of the cast.

My only complaint, the novel seemed to ramble from the midway point to nearly three-quarters, where I feared it would veer in a direction that would create forced angst. Thankfully it didn’t head in that way (if you’re reading this review after reading the book, you’ll understand what I meant by that). Diana’s stubbornness, North’s blindness, it became too much – I’ll use the phrase, ‘Beating a dead horse.’ Over and over again, on repeat, stalling the novel, to the point I won’t deny skim-reading portions.

Other than feeling as if the novel didn’t know how to get from the midway point to the ending, I was thoroughly entertained, enjoying the connection Diana and North had with one another and within the larger cast. The emotions Diana showed felt realistic, tugging at my heartstrings – her feeling of inadequacy, insecurity, and self-consciousness that was placed there by her mother.

The youngsters have me holding out hope that when James runs out of this age-group, she will fast-forward into the future and allow their voices to shine.

The next book was setup perfectly, doing its job by making me hungry to get my hands on it, especially since I’m a sucker for love-hate/enemies-to-lovers storylines.

Highly recommended to historical romance fans, who enjoy a more contemporary take on the genre. While it’s not fade-to-black sexual content, it’s also not salacious. I felt the need to state that after seeing another review. If Eloisa James were Goldilocks, she’d be just right in the between-the-sheets action – tastefully done, plot-driven, and romantic, the passion connects our hero and heroine.


Also Available in The Wildes of Lindow Castle Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
Avon Romance

For reviews & more info, check out our Wilde in Love post.




ELOISA JAMES is a New York Times best-selling author and professor of English literature who lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. She is the mother of two and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight.

Connect with Eloisa

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads
Google+  ~  Instagram


http://avonromance.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Too Wilde to Wed (The Wildes of Lindow Castle #2) by Eloisa James to read and review.

Making Up by Lucy Parker


Author of Act Like It and Pretty Face Lucy Parker returns readers to the West End, where it’s fireworks onstage and off in a sexy enemies-to-lovers showdown.

Once upon a time, circus artist Trix Lane was the best around. Her spark vanished with her confidence, though, and reclaiming either has proved… difficult. So when the star of The Festival of Masks is nixed and Trix is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, it’s exactly the push she needs. But the joy over her sudden elevation in status is cut short by a new hire on the makeup team.

Leo Magasiva: disgraced wizard of special effects. He of the beautiful voice and impressive beard. Complete dickhead and—in an unexpected twist—an enragingly good kisser.

To Leo, something about Trix is… different. Lovely. Beautiful, even though the pint-size, pink-haired former bane of his existence still spends most of her waking hours working to annoy him. They’ve barely been able to spend two minutes together for years, and now he can’t get enough of her. On stage. At home. In his bed.

When it comes to commitment, Trix has been there, done that, never wants to do it again. Leo’s this close to the job of a lifetime, which would take him away from London—and from Trix. Their past is a constant barrier between them.

It seems hopeless.

Utterly impossible.

And yet…

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you're looking for with an HEA/HFN. It's a promise!

Add to Goodreads –


Book 3
Buy Links

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B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
Carina Press



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jordan☆☆☆☆☆
I never got around to reading book one, Act Like It, but after having read Lucy Parker’s Pretty Face, book two in the London Celebrities, I couldn’t imagine not wanting to hop back into the West End! I always love the way Parker makes the West End so easily come to life in her books. Having read the previous book in the London Celebrities series, I think Making Up, book three, can easily be read as a standalone, but I did find the book slightly more enjoyable having read the previous one because we have somewhat of a better understanding of Trix. Plus, I always really like when previous characters pop back up throughout a series, but not reading the previous two books in the series isn’t necessary if you’d like to just skip to Trix’s story.

Book three, Making Up, follows the story of Trix, who is an acrobatic aerialist in a West End show. After finally ending her verbally abusive relationship with Dan St. James, Trix is working hard at getting back in the swing of things at work. Her confidence has taken a beating since her ex, but she’s ready to prove herself. When the star of her show gets injured, she is suddenly forced into the spotlight and given a perfect opportunity, but a new hire on the make-up team is putting a damper on her impending joy. Trix and Leo Magasiva barely tolerated each other’s company for years, but suddenly they’re finding it harder and harder to understand the reasons for their mutual dislike of one another.

Plus, Trix’s character was witty, fun, and a little on the nerdy side, which made her instantly likable! I was totally charmed by Pretty Face and I had no trouble just as easily falling in love with Trix and Leo! Parker’s characters always have such great banter and chemistry that leap off the pages! All in all, another great addition to the London Celebrities series by Lucy Parker and I look forward to reading more from her in the future!

5 stars for Lucy Parker’s Making Up


Ruthie☆☆☆☆☆
4.5 stars of aerial excitement and make-up filled romance – rounded up for the passion and humour!

This is the third book in the series, but can be read as a standalone. I have not yet found time to read the first book, but I loved book two, and we do spend quite a bit of time with Lily (Trix's bff) and Luc, so I would recommend that you read it first. The insight into theatre life is really captivating in both of these books, and in very different genres of performance.

Trix has been brought low by a very dismissive boyfriend, and is nursing her confidence before it collapses completely, so her high school nemesis joining the crew just before she has to take on a bigger role is not at all helpful. But once she and Leo actually talk to each other about times gone by, prompted in part by their mutual school friend Ally, and bff Lily, things most definitely improve! I loved their meetings in the roof garden and could imagine all too clearly what it looked like.

So many lovely scenes, and moments of love, support, and friendship, as well as some passionate and intimate ones (not always in the most private locations). Their past, imperfect knowledge of each other was fleshed out in a wonderfully organic way, which is testament to Lucy Parker's writing style. I ended up reading through the night, as I could not stop until I knew just how she got everything to work out!


Also Available in the London Celebrities Series

Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

For reviews & more info, check out our Pretty Face post.



Lucy Parker lives in the gorgeous Central Otago region of New Zealand, where she feels lucky every day to look out at mountains, lakes and vineyards. She has a degree in art history, loves museums and art galleries, and doodles unrecognizable flowers when she has writer’s block.

When she’s not writing, working or sleeping, she happily tackles the towering pile of to-be-read books that never gets any smaller. Thankfully, there’s always another story waiting.

Her interest in romantic fiction began with a preteen viewing of Pride and Prejudice (Firth-style), which prompted her to read the book, as well. A family friend introduced her to Georgette Heyer, and the rest was history.

She loves to talk to other readers and writers.

Connect with Lucy

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads


http://www.carinapress.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Making Up (London Celebrities #3) by Lucy Parker to read and review.