Review: Out Through The Attic by Quincy J. Allen

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

Synopsis:
Thirteen fantastic tales from the cavorting, twisted mind of Quincy J. Allen, Out Through the Attic
covers everything from steampunk and fantasy to sci-fi and horror. It’s a cross-genre smorgasbord that’s sure to hit the right spot, with a dose or two of straight-up genre fiction for the meat-and-taters appetite.

Review:
I don’t even know where to start with this book. I just loved it. Loved it with a capital L. I can’t even put my finger on why I loved this so much (which is not the best thing for a reviewer to say, but it’s the truth). Here’s what I can attribute my adoration for this book to: 1) I love short stories, and you get 13 of them in here. 2) I love eclectic storytellers, at least that’s what I call them. The author calls himself a cross-genre author. That works for me too. I just love when an author can put on many different genre hats and no matter what, they still work. Their voice is still clear regardless of settings. 3) There aren’t many steampunk stories out in the market place and even fewer that are as devout to the genre without making it cheesy or campy or over commercialized. This author can do that, seemingly without effort.

If I had to single out one aspect that justifies me giving this a top rating it would be Quincy Allen’s ability to describe the world you are reading about with such imagery, so vividly that you can taste it. The settings jump off the page in a color scheme of electric blues, grays, yellows and everything in between. The darkness is just perfect when it needs to be. Nothing is taken away from in these stories.

I know that this type of book, short stories that are from multiple genres aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you enjoy stepping out of the box and reading something a bit different than pick up Out Through The Attic by Quincy J. Allen. It is a great read.

5 out of 5 Stars

Buy This Book:

Out Through The Attic- Kindle

Out Through The Attic- Paperback

About The Author: Quincy Allen, is a self-proclaimed cross-genre author. What that really means is that he’s got enough ADHD to not stick with any single genre and, like his cooking, prefers to mix and match to suit his tastes of the day. He has been published in multiple anthologies, online and print magazines as well as one omnibus. He’s written for the Internet radio show RadioSteam.  His novel Chemical Burn—a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Writers Association Colorado Gold Writing Contest—was first published in June of 2012 and is due out in 2014 in a newly revamped edition from Word Fire Press, which will be carrying the Justin Case series.  His new novel Jake Lasater: Blood Curse, is also due out this year as well as a military sci-fi novel from Twisted Core Press. He works part-time as a tech-writer to pay his bills, does book design and eBook conversions for Word Fire Press by night, and lives in a lovely house that he considers his very own sanctuary.

Presenting yourself as a Professional Part 2

Ahhh the joys of social media, you can vent, you can keep in contact, you can advertise, and you can well...destroy your career. Don't want that now do you? I'll be honest with you. I hate social media, it sucks my time away, but it is honestly the only thing that has worked for me as far as building my platform and my marketing. Now you're wondering where this comes into play when it becomes to being professional. Imagine you're a reader and you're talking to an author, just in passing, an elevator or something and the first thing he/she says to you is. "Oh my fucking god, someone gave me a one star review! How dare they not appreciate my genius!"

Now I hope realize that it's rude and probably should have been kept in the authors mind. I get being frustrated, especially with drive by ratings, and reviews that just make no sense to you. I get it, I do, but here's the deal. They are going to happen. Every author gets bad reviews. Don't believe me? Go look up your favorite authors. Honestly, as a reader, I don't trust a book that doesn't have at least one low rating. Why? Because I feel like one book cannot be everyone's cup of tea. As an author you need to realize that. My point? You wouldn't do this in person, don't do it on your Facebook, tumbler, blog, twitter, whatever you use.

Best policy? Don't respond to the review or rating. Do not let your street team respond, and for the love of the writing gods do not stalk the reviewer! I can hear you now: But it's my personal page! I want to be real with my readers!

My answer to the first one: Yep, but this is the age of the internet, nothing is truly private. That's what's scary about it. Personal or not, you need to control your emotions and feelings. You are a business now, the way you act reflects on your product.

Second one: Be real with your readers, yes, let your readers know you're human to, but do that by interacting with them. Not ranting about them. I'm going to touch on that in just a minute.

Okay, so no responding to reviews. Next thing....do not go on some crazy rant about haters that you have. Seriously. We all have them, we all have people who say things mean about us or our work. Move along, for many of the same reasons above. You are going to hurt your brand if you react badly. This goes back to not ranting about your readers.

Interact with your readers, invite them to answer questions on your pages, they don't have to be related to writing or your books, they can be, but don't have to be. If they ask you a question, answer them honestly. (within reason of course) Even if the question is "What is the order of your series." You need to appreciate your readers, because without them you would be nothing.

Basically don't do anything online that you wouldn't do in person.

Review: Under the Moonlight

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Zara's fate had been decided thousands of years before her birth. She is now fighting against time and family to reclaim the decisions that will ultimately shape her destiny. 

Sentenced to live an existence in the Underworld, mated to a man she despises, Zara must find a way to overcome the Gods and their curses, with love as her only guide. 

Can James, a handsome and rugged sailor, help Zara break the bonds of magical spells or will she end up mated to Xander, the Son of Satan? 

Take a dive Under the Moonlight to see where love can take you.

Review: I loved this. I thought this was the sweetest novella I had gotten my hands on. Yes, a novella it's short, but Ms. Nemer does a great job with crafting the story and pulling you in. We have Zara (which I'm in love with that name, just so everyone knows.) a young mermaid who is fascinated by a human, she can make the choice on her birth day to walk on land or stay under the sea, but something is different. She's been betrothed already to Xander. I love stories where the gods meddle in everything and this is one of those. 

The plot is solid, though I do want more, it ends on it. There is mermaid sex in it, which I think Ms. Nemer does a creative and great job on, it wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be. If you need a quick read, I definitely think you need to pick this up!

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Heat: Mild

(mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching)

Buy the Book:

Amazon

BN

About the Author

Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a 1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they

were younger.

Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life; 

they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.

Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)

Links!

www.artofsafkhet.com

www.ashleynemer.com

www.nikibecker.info 

http://www.facebook.com/ashleynemerauthor

http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/nikibecker

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2897381-ashley-nemer

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-becker

Review: Blood Yellow by Ashley Nemer

Synopsis: The lines are drawn, and Zayn and Nikole must face each other in a battle of forgiveness and power; each attempting to right their wrongs, each battling their own inner demons.
Haydar and Leigh prepare for war, rounding their men and setting into motion courses that cannot be undone.

The tales will fall in line as the four of them come face to face with each other, and they will watch loved ones perish.

When the dust settles and dawn breaks, who's going to be left standing and who will be missing? Will Nikole forgive Zayn for his betrayal? Will Leigh and Haydar overcome their differences? Will Adara say yes?

Blood Yellow...Because the stories only just begun....
Review: I gobbled this book up. This is the second book in the series and I just had to gobble this one

up because of how Ms. Nemer ended the first one. Let me tell you can tell that Nemer had improved her craft by this book. It's smoother and the action is better. The storyline just heats up (not in the sexual way) and she made me cry! Damn her for that! Nikole and Zayn are at each other's throats because they each blame each other for what happened in the first book. They have to over come that or risk losing the crown to Haydar.

Nemer does not skimp on the emotions in this book. Once again she is not afraid to show us the dark and bloody side of war and honestly the book is better for it. You know that there is not going to be nice tidy endings for all the characters. It's been a while since I've seen an indie author not afraid to kill. Nemer's body count does not disappoint. And the ending to this one? Yeah...I'm snatching up the other one.

Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

Heat: Medium

(mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching)

Links: Amazon BN Goodreads

About the Author:

About the Author

Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a 1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they

were younger.

Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life;

they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.

Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)

Links!

www.artofsafkhet.com

www.ashleynemer.com

www.nikibecker.info 

http://www.facebook.com/ashleynemerauthor

http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/nikibecker

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2897381-ashley-nemer

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-becker

Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

As promised, although little later than planned, here is my review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I will be doing this review using only Dragon NaturallySpeaking, afterwords (afterwards) I will go in and edit it, putting corrections in red parenthesis to show where mistakes were made, if there are mistakes, that is.

As some of you might know I injured my hand the summer which made typing my book near impossible. I looked into Dragon NaturallySpeaking as a way to keep writing without using my injured hand. I’ve looked into the pros and cons, I’ve read lots of Goodreads (Dragon doesn't like the word "Goodreads" and kept changing it to "good read") posts about how only bad authors use Dragon, and I’ve seen good reviews and that (bad) reviews. Keep in mind that I haven’t spent a lifetime training Dragon to understand my voice and how I speak. I did the basic tutorial at the beginning which took about 10 minutes and then I just simply started using it.

Overall I’m very pleased, using Dragon is an (isn't- you have to empahsis your words especially when using contractions) easy but it is doable. It is very awkward to sit in a quiet room and speak to your computer. It’s not like talking on the telephone, it’s not like talking to a friend. I’ve been using Dragon to work on my work in progress Dusk, so far the only problem I’ve run into is with character names. I have a character named Abby, for the longest time Dragon insisted on naming her Happy. And as funny as it might be a vampire named Happy has no place in my current work in product (progress- see I was talking fast there and it messed up).

You have to constantly be aware of telling Dragon to insert punctuations, fixing something right away when you see it, or learning to use the GOPAC (go-back- again I didn't ennunciate) commands. You can’t speak too fast, too low, or slur your words (God forbid you might have a speech impediment that would be disastrous). To be honest, I didn’t take much time to learn all of the punctuation commands, the go back commands, or the hotkeys. I just wanted to dive in to my work, I just wanted to write. Dragon lets me do that. It may not be ideal, and some days it is surely a whopping pain in the butt, but it’s worth it given the few hundred words I can get now when I couldn’t type more than three words per minute with my injured hand.

I still peck away one finger at a time to use Facebook or Twitter, but for my writing I’ve been using Dragon pretty successfully. Would I want to use this software to speak an entire book? Not right now. Maybe when I understand the fluency of it better or when I trained it better to understand my speech then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad and it’s not bad right now. I use it for 20 minutes at a time here and there for getting information out of my head and onto the page, which is exactly what I intended to use it for. Is it good that a computer can write my words as fast as I could speak or thinks them? Yes, that is fantastic. But I do miss typing. It’s very hard to not use my hands to go back and fix errors, but this is one of those lessons that after repeated use it will be easier. And I have to say straight out-of-the-box Dragon is pretty easy to begin with.

As you can see there are errors that I will need to fix. I will go through this review before I post it and make note of the errors, but all in all, there are no more errors than when I type fast and am in a hurry. I still have to edit with my typing, everybody does. So it is no more work in the editing process then there is with regular typing. I’ve seen many people, especially on good reads (again, Goodreads), who have blasted anyone using voice to text software as being lazy and uneducated. There is this idea that speaking your words rather than typing them is somehow harming the literary world. Some of the people complaining about it have said that it is the equivalent to self-publishing a poorly written novel (you know by now that SPE takes that claim very seriously), that somehow by speaking it instead of typing it they have watered down and diluted the literary process. I saw one comment say that using voice to text software would only encourage people with poor grammar to write “crappy books that they would then self publish on Amazon and make everyone look bad”. Now I don’t know about anybody else, but having to take the time to remember to tell the software to use a comma or a period is not lazy and if you have to stop mid-sentence to remind a software to use punctuation then obviously you have some grasp on how punctuation should be used.

So if I had to give Dragon a rating, what would it be?

Usability straight out-of-the-box: A- (only because you do need to at least do the 10 minute tutorial at the beginning)

Learning Curve: B- (the learning curve starts high with Dragon but after a few sessions the learning gets easier, and easier.)

Would I recommend it: Yes (whether you are looking into it because you have an injury that requires you to not use your hands or simply want to try it and see if speaking rather than typing works out faster for you, yes either way I recommend it. I don’t see anything wrong with using whatever is available to help you accomplish your goal)

Side note: speaking this review took me about 20 minutes. I didn’t start with a script, I had no idea where I was going with this or what I wanted to say, so off the top of my head and having to go back and use very few verbal commands for correction I was able to write/speak a review totaling roughly about 950 words. 950 words isn’t too bad for 20 minutes.

Review: What The Body Needs, Laura Oliva

What The Body Needs by Laura Oliva

Synopsis:

Jak O'Mara is a survivor.

She's survived in her father's construction company. She's survived in the boxing ring. And she survived the brutal attack that left her permanently scarred.

For the last five years, she's tried to convince everyone -including herself- she's no victim. But with the apparent return of her unknown assailant, the life she's rebuilt crumbles overnight.

Ex-cop Marcus Cutter has his own scars, they just don't show. Following the violent death of his younger sister, he fled his old life in disgrace. After almost six years, "rock-bottom" feels a lot like home.

As Jak's new bodyguard, Marcus is forced to return to the city -and the memories- he's tried to forget. All he wants is to do his job, but Jak isn't what he expects. When he's with her, he finally feels something besides pain.

When the danger escalates, Jak decides it's time to take matters into her own hands. She's determined to find who's after her, no matter the cost. Marcus knows he has to protect the woman who's made his life mean something again. But how do you protect someone who's convinced they have nothing left to lose?

Review:

Admittedly this isn’t a genre that I normally read, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I did have my issues with the main character, Jak, mostly I wanted to slap her, shake her, and ask her what the hell she was thinking, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It takes a lot for me to want to engage with a character when I don’t agree with their choices and in this book I seriously wanted to engage with her. I did however love Marcus, he is a great leading man.

The setting is crystal clear, you get a sense you are standing on these streets, in these neighborhoods. It is a tactile experience, I could almost touch and smell the city around me as I was reading. Ms. Oliva has crafted the location with complete authenticity and as a reader that level of detail is appreciated.

The characters all strike me as attempts at throwbacks to the old noir detective/private investigator films of the 1940’s. Where bad guys had street names, like Five Finger Freddy, that boarder on almost comical, men smoked cigarettes without care, and women could down a glass of whiskey just as quickly as their male counterparts and spoke in husky-seductive tones. Speaking of the street names, I did find myself thinking that a lot of people’s names reminded me of the Dick Tracy comic books and it did give me a little giggle or two. Given the tone of the story though, the names of certain characters didn’t pull me out of the tale too much to where I couldn’t enjoy it. It is that throwback feel and characters that build this story.

The genre is Noir Romance. Go into it with this in mind. Just because it has that throwback feel, don’t expect to find any character in a long trench coat and a wide brimmed hat. This isn’t like film-noir of the golden age like High Sierra or The Maltese Falcon or the Frank Miller noir of today’s cinema like Sin City. This is set in the modern age with realistic characters. Think more like the noir genre of the 1980-90’s films. Things like Basic Instinct, neo-noir like Heat, and L.A. Confidential (comparing books to film isn’t fair, I know, but it’s the best way to explain it). The setting is vivid, the scenery is realistic, it's the characters that are dark in this story. They all have issues that they wear like tattered badges of courage. Never wanting anyone to dig too deep and expose their vulnerability, but in the end, it is exposed and gives you a great insight into why these flawed characters act the way they do.

Of course I have to end this on the steamy parts… They are steamy, well written and when it happens they are executed brilliantly. Have I mentioned they are steamy? The language isn’t too graphic for those of you who don’t like the use of explicit language in sex scenes, but it is definitely enough to fog up your glasses as you read.

4 out of 5 Stars

Heat Rating: HOT

 (mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching)

Links for What The Body Needs: Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads

About The Author: Laura's Bio

When not sweating blood over the keyboard, Laura Oliva is a full-time mom, wife, amateur chef, gardener, and (non)recovering clotheshorse. Laura lives in Northern California with her young son and her remarkably patient husband.

SPE was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A note on review bloggers

So being a review blogger and an author gives me a chance to see things from both sides of the equations. We’ve all seen it, authors moaning and groaning about bad reviews from bloggers or readers. We all know my stance on that. (If not it boils down to this: put your big person panties on and get over it. You’re a professional) I may be beating a dead horse here, but I keep in contact with other review bloggers and I’ve seen and heard some interesting stories about authors. Okay, so authors here’s the deal…Review bloggers are not your friends. Got it? You can’t hand them a book an expect them to lie to you, even if you’ve built a good relationship with them.

I just heard you gasp. If they aren’t our friends, what are they? Think of them almost as a boss. No they don’t get to tell you what to do, but let’s face it, they get to judge the work you do. You go and you write a nice letter asking them to read this book, you make it appeal to them, you want them to review it. Some blogs have a policy that if they rate it under a particular amount of stars, they will let you know first and you can say if they can post it or not. (You will find no such policy here at SPE) As an author I think that defeats the purpose of sending it to a review blog.

I am sending my book to a stranger (if it’s the first time that blog has read one of my books) I may be sending it to someone I consider a friend. But they are a review blog first, I expect that they tell me the truth about the book. If I want an ego stroke, I’d got to someone who feels obligated to lie to me. (We all have those friends.) Giving me a chance to say no or yes to posting a review tricks the readers into thinking that all blogs will only give me a certain rating or higher. As a reader, that pisses me off. I’m the person who reads the bad reviews to see what I’m getting into.

As a blogger I don’t think it’s a good policy, which is why you won’t find it here at SPE. Authors say they want honest reviews, that is what they are going to get. Readers deserve to see those 1 or 2 star ratings. The problem is that there are mobs out there so quick and ready to label reviewers as bullies because of low ratings. That is not right and is a whole other blog on it’s own. That being said, author’s if bloggers give you a choice and a low ratings, suck it up. Do not be rude back to them. They have spent their time reading your book. Just because they didn’t like that one doesn’t meant they won’t like the next. Being a pompous twat isn’t going to help your relationship with them. And by the way, just like authors talk so do bloggers.

My point is. You are an author, learn to take feed back and deal with it. You don’t get to screen your readers’ reviews, why should you get to screen your review blog reviews? Honest feed back, it’s what we need. Remember, especially as an indie author, you’d be no where without your readers. Your readers turn to those bloggers, if they shut down because of rude authors, you’re only hurting yourself.

Review: Madman: Love. War. Retail.

Madman: Love. War. Retail.

N. Pfeifer

Blurb: What if you lived in the world's largest retail store, a place where you couldn't dream any higher than the warehouse ceiling? That's the crumbling world that Alex Gabriel lives in. But when Management threatens to shut the entire Midwest down, he and everyone he knows are willing to do what it takes to prevent the world from flushing away altogether. Love will be made, war will be fought and retail will be plundered in this dark tribute to the tepid life of customer service. (Taken from Goodreads)

Genre: Um... dystopian thriller? Sure. We'll go with that.

Review: Okay despite the fact that I'm really not sure what genre this book counts as, I really did enjoy it. The blurb does not do it justice. Oh no, there is much more to this world than it seems. Management has taken over the United States. That's right, imagine your worst manager...ruling the US. Terrifying, yes? I know I had some awful managers during my time of retail, but here's the thing. This world is stuck in the early 90's. Think cassette tapes, old tube tvs, got it? Good. This is the world that Alex Gabriel lives in and works at The Mart. He's moved up to supervisor of electronics! Good for Alex, but his life gets turned upside down. His friends and family work for for a militia to take down the Management...the end is coming for the Midwest. 

This book had a great plot to it, something I haven't seen before and it was a nice change. We have a dystopian like world based in the crazy world of retail. It's not just a store, Mr. Pfeifer takes it to a whole new level and creates a world out of it. He's created a master piece from it. His characters are believable and react correctly under situations handed to him. It had a bit of everything in it, even sex. (I'm not giving it a heat rating since it wasn't a romance.) A couple things...it is dark, there are some graphic scenes probably not for the light of heart and you will not find your HEA. The end is well worth it, even if I did cry. There was enough thrill to keep me on the edge of my seat, but enough light hearted moments to keep it balanced well.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Buy It:
Amazon

N. Pfeifer on 
Goodreads
Twitter: @TerranCEO
Facebook

Review: Obsessed with the Kill, TJ Weeks

Obsessed with the Kill

TJ Weeks

Blurb: Allison and her five friends take a ski vacation after graduating from high school to Switzerland. The trip is made up of fun times in a little Switzerland town till they run into hell. Abducted into the caves of the snowy mountains. Tortured daily in ways you'll never forget for information thought to be known. Channel 7 News makes headway for these high school graduates. What doesn't haunt your dreams will surely haunt their own. This book is full of suspense, thriller and action with a twist. Will Allison and her friends make it out alive or will the trouble they find drag them into the depths of hell? (Taken from Goodreads)

Genre: Thriller/suspense

Review: This book had promise and I think that was one of the most disappointing things. There was so much this story could have been, but it wasn't. We start with a group of friends who go out of country on a ski vacation, the characters fall flat there's a lot of pointless talk. This is not the age group that are typically in adult books, they think about nothing other than relationships and have no real personalities to them. I have no sense of who they are or why I should care if they are kidnapped. (Don't get me wrong, it is always sad when someone is kidnapped, but you need to make me feel something for these characters.) They get mixed up in a terrorist situation, where the terrorist thinks that they are spies. Should be pretty heart pound and edge of the seat action...not really.

We have torture scenes (including rape when it comes to the woman), I had a hard time understanding exactly what was going on with a couple of them and felt that they could have been better executed. As time moves on we go from the girls having paranoia and what should have been twists in the plot line were poorly written and implemented. The book had plenty of potential as far as plot, but it was disappointing to me. The book even had three alternative endings...that really did nothing for me. A lot of tell and no show, head hopping, flat characters, confusing time/scene jumps, I feel that the author could have done much more to polish up this book.

I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

Stars 1.5 out of 5

Buy it:

Amazon

Review: Maverick: The Highway by Ashley Nemer

Synopsis: Nadia and Anabella head down to Houston, Texas, for what they thought would be a relaxing vacation. Nadia could work on her travel news articles for her boss in Cedar Rapids while Anabella caught a few rays of sunshine. Or that was the plan. Little did they know what trouble lurked inside the luxurious hotel nestled in the center of downtown Houston.

When Carlisle Ali introduces Anabella to his friend and brother-in-arms, Carter Jackson, all hell breaks loose for the Mavericks. Trouble never has a problem finding Nadia when she is out and about looking for a story. Be it Cedar Rapids or Houston, it doesn’t matter. Nadia finds a way to cause chaos and

disaster.

What happens when Mr. A and Mr. J go out on a hunt for the man who is terrorizing people along I-45, the interstate running through the heart of Houston? More importantly, what happens to Nadia and Mr. A when they are forced to face the feelings that have been boiling between them for over a year now?

Review: I'm still feeling cozy after this book. I love sweet, make you feel good, books with a bit of a thrill to them. The book opens up with a slap in the face (not literally, but still...) and I was sucked in. I had to now how Nadia ended up in that situation. I love the relationship that Nadia has with her sister Ana and it reminds me of the banter that I've had with my own sisters now mix that with Mr. A and Mr. J? Yep, I giggled through most the book. I'm in love with Carlisle and Carter, just am. I love the way Ms. Nemer created them, they are men who are't sorry for what they do—kill people. Yep. No really, let me change my way for you romance here. Her descriptions is great so that you get a senses of Houston and grounds the plot a little more. 

Ms. Nemer manages to create a HEA without the need for a lot of the theatrics. I still have the warm and fuzzies and goofy grin that I had when I finished reading this book. There's a bit of mystery to it, a lot of sexy personality in the men. No sex, but it doesn't need it. That's not the focus of this character driven book. I can't wait for the next one! If you want a quick, quirky read, pick up this series, Ms. Nemer will not disappoint! 

Below you will fine a contest for a contest for a copy of Maverick: The Highway. Good Luck!

I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. 

5 out of 5 stars*

*Originally was going to be 4.5 but when I woke up still thinking about this book, I decided it was worthy of being bumped up.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy it: :

Barnes & Noble  

Smashwords

All Romance Ebooks

Bookstrand

About the Author: Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 9 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance & mystery genres ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they were younger.

Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life; they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.

Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)

Follow her:

www.artofsafkhet.com

www.ashleynemer.com

www.nikibecker.info 

http://www.facebook.com/ashleynemerauthor

http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/nikibecker

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2897381-ashley-nemer

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-becker