Review: Finding My Girl/Loving Talia by Melissa Foster

About Finding My Girl:

FINDING MY GIRL / LOVING TALIA is a companion booklet to the contemporary romance novel, LOVE LIKE OURS (Sugar Lake series).

If this is your first Melissa Foster book, please note that Finding My Girl / Loving Talia is not a novel, a novella, or even a typical short story. It is a companion booklet to the full-length contemporary romance novel, Love Like Ours, featuring Talia Dalton and Derek Grant. In Love Like Ours, one of the many ways Derek shows his love for Talia is through cute and loving sketches depicting their lives as they came together. Finding My Girl / Loving Talia is a collection of those images, along with a couple of images that Jonah, Derek's father, had drawn for his wife, Eva. Within these pages you will also find heartfelt messages from Derek to Talia that are not found in the original novel. As a bonus, I have included the first chapter of Love Like Ours in the back of the booklet.

I hope you enjoy this quick, visual adaptation of Derek and Talia's journey into coupledom. To read their full-length love story, please buy Love Like Ours, a Sugar Lake novel (available in digital, paperback, and audio formats).

~ Melissa

My Review:

Guys! GUYS! This companion novel was everything. It made me laugh, kept a smile on my face the entire time and brought tears to my eyes. My only complaint was I wish it were longer!

Throughout the novel, Love Like Ours, Derek Grant creates a book of words and drawings for Talia Dalton. These drawings signify meaningful parts of their story and how the two characters get together. We get descriptions of the drawings, but we don’t get to see them. NOW WE DO! Finding My Girl are all those drawings and I loved every single moment of it. The drawings were beautiful and adorable.

Now I don’t recommend picking this companion story up unless you have read Love Like Ours. While you can still enjoy the drawings, they will not mean as much to you. Pick up Love Like Ours from Kindle Unlimited, devour it as I did (the story is absolutely amazing!) and then pick this one up. You will not be disappointed!! 

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About the Author:

Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance and women's fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Readers adore Melissa's fun, flirty, and sinfully sexy, award-winning big family romance collection, LOVE IN BLOOM featuring the Snow Sisters, Bradens, Remingtons, Ryders, Seaside Summer, Harborside Nights, and the Wild Boys After Dark. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic and always family oriented.

Melissa also writes sweet and clean romance under the pen name Addison Cole.

Melissa has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Her interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping others see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod.

Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa on social media or her personal website.

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Review: Who We Were by Melissa Collins

About the Book:

Who We Were...

Two awkward teenagers - the loner and the nerd, trying to find our place in the world. Paired in wood shop, we knew nothing of each other, except that we wanted to know everything. Then one life altering moment changed it all and we were left with shattered dreams and broken hearts.

Who We Are...

Two grown men - braver and smarter than we used to be, trying to heal the damage from that irrevocable moment. Even though the past was behind us, dead and buried long ago, we found it impossible to move on without ripping open the scars of our deep wounds.

With twelve years of unanswered questions fueling our desperate need for the truth, we must figure out if who we were will destroy who we are.

My Review:

Melissa Collins is one of my “1-click” authors whenever she releases a new book, and most of the time I don’t even know what it’s about, but I know I am going to love it! When I had the opportunity to review Who We Were I knew I had to take it. I really enjoyed this story. It was a fast read and while the characters broke my heart over and over again, there was a happy ending for these sweet, sweet boys.

The story begins when the two main characters, Ryan and Quinn are thirteen years old. Quinn helps Ryan out, and for the next five years, Ryan hates him for it. They don’t talk again until they are eighteen and are forced to work together in wielding class. Ryan is a loner that keeps to himself and Quinn desperately wants to get to know him. The two of them start a friendship, which is just what Ryan needs. For the first time in his life, he feels safe and wanted. His parents are crappy to him, his brother is physically abusive to him, and their parents never stop it. Ryan’s home life is very sad. 

Quinn has the complete opposite life. His parents are supportive and kind and his twin sister is his best friend.

Ryan’s life goes through many changes and the two boys won’t see each other again until twelve years later. I loved these two as boys, but as men! Man oh man. So many sexy and sweet times.

My one complaint is the secret that Ryan finds out. I was interested in the secret and I could not wait to find out what it was. I definitely was not expecting it, but the whole thing was just too far-fetched for me. His parents, concerning the secret, and their personality towards Ryan after telling him the secret seemed unrealistic to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Who We Were. I loved the characters and the writing and I definitely cannot want to read Melissa Collin’s next book! 

About the Author:

Melissa Collins has always been a book worm. Studying Literature in college ensured that her nose was always stuck in a book. She followed her passion for reading to the most logical career choice: English teacher. Her hope was to share her passion for reading and the escapism of books to her students. Having spent more than a decade in front of a classroom, she can easily say that it’s been a dream.

Her passion for writing didn’t start until more recently. When she was home on maternity leave in early 2012, she read her first romance novel and her head filled with the passion, angst and laughter of the characters who she read about it. It wasn’t long before characters of her own took shape in her mind. Their lives took over Melissa’s brain and The Love Series was born.

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Purchase Links: 

Amazon - https://mc-author.com/WWW_MC-Amazon
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Google Play - https://mc-author.com/WWW_MC-Google
*If you read with Apple, Nook, Kobo, or Google Play - this title will be removed from these retailers and going into KU on Sunday, so grab your copy today!  

Review: Trouble in Hell by Alex Grayson

About the book: 

Four men, irrevocably bound together by their horrifying past…

Trouble and his brothers escaped from Malus, Texas as kids. In the dead of night, they left behind a Hell so ominous, it made National news.

When they returned as adults, it was to seek revenge and justice. Malus is theirs now. They own it, they rule it, and they protect it. By any means necessary. 

Trouble carries demons inside him. The need for blood and vindication runs deep in his veins, and nothing will stop the darkness within him from shining its evil eyes.

When Remi arrives, pregnant and in need of help, she has no idea she’s come to the one place she should have stayed far away from. Something dark surrounds the town. A malevolence she has no hope of surviving.

Will Trouble drag Remi into the dark pits of Hell? Or will she be the ultimate downfall of the devil himself?

Add the book to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/troubleinhellGR

My Review:

As soon as I saw the synopsis for Trouble in Hell, I knew that I had to get my hands on it as soon as possible. This was such a gritty, emotional, heartbreaking, rise you up from the ashes story and I had a hard time putting it down. I was even more upset when it was over, and I already can’t wait for the next story, which releases in January!

The story begins 23 years ago, and we are introduced to Trouble and his brothers, JD, Judge and Emo. We know something bad is going on, but we don’t learn how truly bad it is until later in the story. 23 years later and Trouble is the local doctor in his small town of Malus, TX. This is the town that he had escaped from, but his brothers and himself have come back to rid the town of any evils and help anyone who needs it. We also meet Remi who is escaping pain from her recent past. Pregnant and driving a car with no AC in the middle of Texas has finally got to her. She stops in Malus and passes out, waking up in the office of Dr. Trouble Trayce.

This story guys. This story. It will completely pull at your heartstrings, barely putting your heart back together and I loved every second of it. The characters were extremely well written, even the secondary characters. I needed to know every ones back story, and boy, is it hard to read. What Trouble, his brothers, and even members of the town went through is absolutely terrifying and devastating.

I loved Trouble and Remi together. They had a beautiful connection and I enjoyed seeing Trouble open up to her about his past. Remi’s secret was also something that I had not been expecting and also killed me. GAHHH this book. It was beautiful and sad, and everything I could want in a story.

I am so looking forward to the other stories. I know that JD’s story is next. I have a feeling Judge will be after, and Emo last. I just hope Emo gets a book, because I am so intrigued by his story.

I seriously recommend this book. I can not say enough good things about this story! 

Book Information:

**RELEASE ALERT** TROUBLE IN HELL by Alex Grayson just went live and can be read for FREE in KindleUnlimited! 

Giveaway : Win a TROUBLE IN HELL prize pack featuring a blanket, t-shirt, ceramic mug, tote bag, Cry Here pillow, and signed poster, plus a $50 Gift Card! http://bit.ly/FBTiHGiveaway

Contest Ends: Oct. 24

Amazon US - http://bit.ly/TiHamazonUS

Amazon UK - http://bit.ly/TiHamazonUK

Amazon CA - http://bit.ly/TiHamazonCA

Amazon AU - http://bit.ly/TiHamazonAU

Watch the Book Trailer here: http://bit.ly/TiHtrailer

Author Links:

Website: www.alexgraysonbooks.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Alex-Grayson-Author-447316145407080/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AlexGrayson10

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexgraysonauthor/

Newsletter: - http://eepurl.com/bAxPLf

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Book+Main - https://bookandmainbites.com/alexgrayson

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/alexgraysonauth/

About the Author: 

Alex Grayson is the bestselling author of heart pounding, emotionally gripping contemporary romances including the Jaded Series, the Consumed Series, and three standalone novels. Her passion for books was reignited by a gift from her sister-in-law. After spending several years as a devoted reader and blogger, Alex decided to write and independently publish her first novel in 2014 (an endeavor that took a little longer than expected). The rest, as they say, is history.

Originally a southern girl, Alex now lives in Ohio with her husband, two children, two cats and dog. She loves the color blue, homemade lasagna, casually browsing real estate, and interacting with her readers. Visit her website, www.alexgraysonbooks.com, or find her on social media!

Review: The Lost Season of Love and Snow by Jennifer Laam

About the Book

At the age of sixteen, Natalya Goncharova is stunningly beautiful and intellectually curious. But while she finds joy in French translations and a history of Russian poetry, her family is more concerned with her marriage prospects. It is only fitting that during the Christmas of 1828 at her first public ball in her hometown of Moscow she attracts the romantic attention of Russia’s most lauded rebel poet: Alexander Pushkin.

Enchanted at first sight, Natalya is already a devoted reader of Alexander’s serialized novel in verse, Evgeny Onegin. The most recently published chapter ends in a duel, and she is dying to learn what happens next. Finding herself deeply attracted to Alexander’s intensity and joie de vivre, Natalya hopes to see him again as soon as possible.

What follows is a courtship and later marriage full of equal parts passion and domestic bliss but also destructive jealousies. When vicious court gossip leads to Alexander dying from injuries earned defending his honor as well as Natalya’s in a duel, Natalya finds herself reviled for her alleged role in his death. With beautiful writing and understanding, Jennifer Laam, and her compelling new novel, The Lost Season of Love and Snow, help Natalya tell her side of the story—the story of her greatest love and her inner struggle to create a fulfilling life despite the dangerous intrigues of a glamorous imperial Court.

My Review

Everything from the very beginning of this story captivated me! The cover was the first thing to attract me. The soft colors, the beautiful dress and St. Basil’s Cathedral in the window. Then the synopsis completely hooked me with tales of love, honor, and the beautiful setting of Russia. Overall, I was very happy with this book and would highly recommend it.

The story follows the real life romance of Natalya Goncharova and famous poet Alexander Pushkin through her eyes. The story begins with his death and then goes back in time when Natalie is 16 and is meeting Alexander for the first time. Don’t worry, his death isn’t a spoiler. It is public knowledge how he died, and it is in the synopsis!

I really enjoyed following their love story and I thought Natalie was a very relatable character. In the beginning of the story, she is a young 16-year-old girl. Her mother expects her to act like a lady and find a husband with money, but she would rather read, write and marry for love. I thought she was a great character, and knowing she was an actual real person, made her even better!

I usually don’t read and enjoy historical fiction books, which is weird because I am a history teacher, but again, I really enjoyed this one! I am happy that I discovered a new author and I am excited to read more from her!