Review: The Colorado Mountain Series by Kristen Ashley

~Synopsis~

The Colorado Mountain Series takes place in a trinity of fictional Colorado towns situated close to each other, Gnaw Bone, Carnal and Chantelle. This series that will be seven novels follows the stories of seven connected men on their rocky road to second chances.

The Gamble

Love is the greatest gamble of all . . .

Nina Sheridan desperately needs a timeout vacation. With a fiancé who can't even remember how she takes her coffee, Nina wants some distance to rethink her engagement. Flying halfway around the world from England to a mountain town in Colorado should do the trick. But when she finds a gorgeous man at her rental cabin, Nina's cold, lonely adventure suddenly heats up.

The owner of the house, Holden "Max" Maxwell is surprised by the beautiful woman who turns up at his door. But when Nina becomes ill, Max spends days nursing her back to health. A private man with a broken heart, Max finds himself drawn to the strong-willed woman. Soon it becomes impossible for Nina and Max to deny their growing attraction to one another. Yet even as these two wounded lovebirds think about taking a chance on a relationship, a dangerous secret from Max's past emerges-and threatens to end their love for good.

Sweet Dreams

She's ready for the ride of her life . . .

Lauren Grahame is looking to reinvent herself. After leaving her cheating husband, Lauren moves to Carnal, Colorado, and gets a job as a waitress in a biker bar called Bubba's. It's a nothing job in a nowhere joint . . . until Tatum Jackson walks in. Lauren has never seen a man with such good looks, muscles, and attitude. But when he insults her, Lauren doesn't want anything to do with him. Too bad for Lauren he's also the bar's part owner and bartender.

When the rough-around-the-edges Tate meets the high-class Lauren, he thinks she won't fit in at Bubba's. Yet there's more to Lauren than meets the eye, and Tate soon sets his mind on claiming her as his own. Before long, the desire burning between them is heating up the cold mountain air. But when violence strikes the town, Tate must reveal a dark secret to Lauren-one that may put an end to their sweet dreams.

Lady Luck

Is love in the cards?

Since birth, Lexie Berry has had nothing but bad luck. Orphaned at an early age, she had a rough childhood and a boyfriend who was murdered. Now the beautiful, stylish Lexie is determined to change her luck and her life. But first she's got to make good on a promise: to pick up Ty Walker from prison. One look at the gorgeous ex-convict and Lexie knows she's in trouble-and already thinking about taking a walk on the wild side . . .

For five years, Ty was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Now he wants revenge on the people who framed him. Yet when the high-stakes poker player sees the leggy Lexie, he suddenly has other desires on his mind. Realizing that Ty is innocent, Lexie tries to stop his plan for vengeance and help him become a better man. But as Ty battles his inner demons, dirty cops and criminals plot to take him out. Can he and Lexie find a way to escape the past?

Breathe

There's nothing like the first time . . .

In Carnal, Colorado, Faye Goodknight is the town's quiet, shy librarian. She may also be Carnal's last remaining virgin. For years, Faye has had a crush on Chace Keaton, but the gorgeous cop has always been unattainable. She's resigned to live contentedly with only her books for company-until Faye suddenly meets Chace alone in the woods . . .

Chace doesn't think he's the good guy everyone believes him to be. He's made a lot of choices he regrets, including denying his feelings for Faye. Through his choices, he's come to believe the pretty librarian is too good for him, but after their time in the woods, Chace realizes that she may be his last chance for redemption. Soon, their long simmering desires grow to a burning passion. Yet always casting a shadow over their happiness is Chace's dark past . . .

Jagged

An old flame rekindled . . .

Zara Cinders always knew Ham Reece was the one, but he wasn't interested in settling down. When she found someone who was, Ham walked out of her life. Three years later, Zara's lost her business, her marriage, and she's barely getting by in a tiny apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. As soon as Ham hears about Zara's plight, he's on her doorstep offering her a lifeline. Now, it will take every ounce of will power she possesses to resist all that he offers.

Ham was always a traveling man, never one to settle down in one town, with one woman, for more time than absolutely necessary. But Ham's faced his own demons, and he's learned a lot. About himself, and about the life he knows he's meant to live. So when he hears that Zara's having a rough time, he wants to be the one to help. In fact, he wants to do more than that for Zara. A lot more. But first, he must prove to Zara that he's a changed man.

Kaleidoscope

When old friends become new lovers...anything can happen.

Sexy, gifted, and loyal, PI Jacob Decker is a tall, cool drink of perfection who had Emmanuelle Holmes at "hello." His relationship with Emme's best friend kept them apart for years, but things have changed. Now that a case has brought him to Gnaw Bone, Colorado, the road is wide open for Emme and Deck to explore something hotter and deeper than Emme dreamed possible. So why is she sabotaging the best thing that's ever happened to her?

It isn't easy to catch Deck off guard, but Emme does just that when she walks back into his life after nine long years. The curvy brunette had her charms back in the day, but now she's a bona fide knockout . . . and she wants to rekindle their friendship. Deck, however, wants more. Emme's always been the one; she excites Deck's body and mind like no other woman can. But a dark chapter from Emme's past overshadows their future together. Now only Deck can help her turn the page-if she'll let him . . .

~My Review~
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I first read The Gamble in January of 2014.  I absolutely loved it, but for some reason never went on to read the other books of the series.  I loved The Gamble so much that I wouldn't be surprised if I read it at least three times since I first bought it.  It was a very long book, but I loved every bit of it.  Nina and Max both had sad pasts, but through Nina's stubbornness and Max's Alpha Male Mountain Man attitude, they were able to work through their pasts and they made the story extremely enjoyable.

At the time that I bought The Gamble, I was into reading series of books.  By Series, I mean book series that included the same characters through 3 or 4 books.  So when I saw that the rest of the series were about different people, I decided that The Gamble was enough for me.  Then, a few weeks back, I decided I needed new material to read.  The Gamble was the only book I had read by Kristen Ashley, and a few of her other books in this Colorado Mountain Series came up in a search result.  So I decided that I needed to read the rest of the series.  I'm also on a kick where I want to read every single book written by each author that I like, so I decided that Kristen Ashley was where I was starting (at least with this series).  It took me quite a while to read all 5 remaining books.  They're all really long books, with The Gamble, Sweet Dreams, Lady Luck, and Breathe all between 650-680 pages long, while Jagged and Kaleidoscope are shorter around 385-405 pages long (shorter, yes, but still long).

There is a ton of detail in all the books and the characters are extremely well developed.  You understand both characters really well, and while you learn things about each of the main characters as you go along, I really felt like I understood them all, and I was constantly rooting for them.  I loved that even though this was a series with different characters in each book, a lot of the characters carried over.  Nina and Max, Lauren and Tate, Lexie and Ty, Faye and Chase, Zara and Ham, and Emme and Jacob (Deck) all show up some way or another in each other's stories, and I love seeing how they are woven in.  The men were all so intense in different aspects.  They are all the epitome of Alpha Male, and I loved seeing how they reacted to different things the girls did, and how their jobs or backgrounds affected the story.  The girls were awesome.  Smart, sassy, sexy, and so lovable.  And because there was so much detail in all of the stories, and a lot of the secondary characters carried over from book to book, I felt like I knew them really well too.  So I also fell in love with Shambles and Sunny, Bubba, Krystal, Jonas, Dominic, Wood, and Jim Billy, and so many more.

If I had to look all of the books and rate them from my most favorite to my least favorite, I wouldn't be able to.  I loved all the books for different reasons.  I do have to say that out of all of them, Jagged was my least favorite.  It seemed to have a bit of a different theme than all the rest, which seemed to follow a similar path.  It was my least favorite - but I still really liked it!  Regardless of which book I liked better than another, all of the books had a great set of characters and great character development.  They all had conflict and resolution.  There is plenty of conflict going on in these books.  There isn't one straight problem that needs to be fixed, but actually a number of issues that all affect each other some way or another and it's always extremely interesting to see them all woven together.  

The stories themselves all have a common theme and seem to follow the same overall structure.  However, none of the characters have the same problem, and none of it feels like something you've read before.  There is steaminess and sexiness to die for in every book, and there were many times where I had to fan myself through some of the scenes!

One of the things I loved was how the title of the book always came up in the actual story.  Nina takes a Gamble with Max.  Lauren has trouble sleeping, Tate wants her to have Sweet Dreams, and he's able to finally help her sleep.  Lexie and Ty have been kicked so many times by Lady Luck, and are finally blessed with good fortune.  Chase always has to remind Faye to breathe, whether it's because she's happy or sad.  Ham's voice was always somehow Jagged to Zara's ears.  And Emme's gift of the Kaleidoscope to Deck is always present, and a huge portion of their relationship.  It makes each story so singular, that I loved trying to figure out how the title of the book was going to be incorporated into the actual story.

I'm so glad that I finally decided to read the rest of the books in this series.  They were really long and it took me a while to get through them all, but it was totally worth it.  I did read on Kristen Ashely's website that she's also planning eventual books for Wood and Deke, so I'm going to remain on the lookout for those books because I would love to read their stories as well.  

I'm also going to put Kristen Ashley on my list of "other books I need to read" and hopefully read her other series.  She is an amazing author and I loved all of her books so far!

The Colorado Mountain Series on Goodreads

The Gamble on Kindle
The Gamble on Nook

Sweet Dreams on Kindle
Sweet Dreams on Nook

Lady Luck on Kindle
Lady Luck on Nook

Breathe on Kindle
Breathe on Nook

Jagged on Kindle
Jagged on Nook

Kaleidoscope on Kindle
Kaleidoscope on Nook

Review: Melodies (The Bianca Grey Series #1) by Pamela Srey

~Synopsis~

Seventeen year old Bianca Grey had a not so usual teenage life. Adopted with an abusive foster mother and unpopular at Philadelphia High School, Bianca found peace with her artistic talents. Pete Carrara Jr., had a different life. He was popular in school, musically talented with good looks and brains. Pete had the ideal perfect life with the perfect family and friends. Love had never crossed his mind until one day when he ran into Bianca. That very day, he thought love to be very possible.

Bianca was guarded and had never let anyone get close to her. No one knew she was adopted, not even the school. The more Pete got to know her, the more he fell in love with her. Bianca was not so certain on how much Pete should know about her personal life but the more she learned about Pete, the more she cared for him. With him, her complicated life wasn't so complicated anymore.

Their young romance blossomed through the difficulty of a drama filled high school and a series of mysterious killings in the city. But just when Pete thought that things were perfect with Bianca, her past surface. Can their love overcome the scariest reality out there, the so called life?

~My Review~
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I was contacted by Pamela Srey via Twitter to read and review this book. This was the first time an author had reached out to me to read their work, and I was excited to do it!
Overall, I'll start out by saying that I enjoyed the book.  I liked the qualities given to both Bianca and Pete, where Bianca is a loner, who chooses to be that way, doesn't yearn to be one of the cool kids, and focuses on her studies.  She comes from a broken home, and we learn more and more about her home life as the story progresses.  I really loved the focus on her art work.  Pete is a fun character, a popular kid who seems to have had the world handed to him.  He is very close with his family, and he has had an affluent upbringing, the very opposite of Bianca.  He's very into music, and I thought it was a fun quality for him to have.  Playing the piano myself, but never being able to make up my own music, I found myself really enjoying Pete's abilities.

There is an amazing underlying message throughout the book about love.  About being loved and loving others.  I really liked how unlike so many other books I've read, there was an insta-like, but not an insta-love.  This made the story more believable than many of the other books I've read in the past.  I liked that having never known what love is, Bianca is reluctant to throw the word at Pete, even though she recognizes that she really likes him.  

          "Do you love me?" he asked and she could see the tears in his eyes.  She started to cry too.  "We're too young to know what love is, Pete," she said.  "We haven't even bugin to experience life."
          "Do you love me?" he asked again.
          "I can't even figure out how to love myself, let alone love someone else."

This conversation was so profound for me.  It showed maturity in a young girl, totally the opposite of how other girls would be so quick to throw the word love around.  She also recognizes that she doesn't love herself, and having never been loved by anyone else before, how does she know that she loves Pete?  The message is so deep.

So while I did love the message brought across throughout the story, there were a few things that didn't work for me.  

While I understand that the characters were in high school, I'll admit that I sometimes felt like the characters were older.  When I was in high school, I didn't have a car and I had a curfew.  I was really surprised by the sleepovers and the amount of freedom that these kids had.  It gave the feeling of a lot more independence, and therefore maybe college instead of high school.  At the same time, while they acted older and were a bit more sexually active that I was in high school, I noticed that not once was a conversation held about condoms or birth control.  While the sex was mentioned and alluded to, there was no detail written in, as is consistent with young adult fiction, but I was still surprised for the lack of conversation.  

The book dealt with some controversial topics, including abuse & neglect, bullying, rape and murder.  I thought all the messages brought across were very important.  All these topics were brought in in multiple layers which added to the story.  However, some parts of the story were really slow.  I felt like too much time was given to describing mundane details, and not expanding on the actual story.  At the same time, there were some plot holes.  By the end of the book, even though there is a cliff hanger and you know there is a Book 2 (Which is coming out on April 1, by the way), there was conflict that happened within the book that was essentially resolved (the rape and murders, the abuse Bianca incurred by the hands of her mother, and Sandra's own abuse), but I still came away with a lot of questions.  And while the story had multiple layers to it, I felt like a couple of the layers were thrown in there for extra padding, but ended up just seemly like extra fluff.  Yes, they added to the story, and in some cases were key to helping the story, but if more detail had been given throughout, and the resolution had been a bit better, I think it could have sealed up some of those holes.

All in all, I enjoyed this read.  I liked the overall message of love, and I liked the characters and overall story.  I am looking forward to Book 2, because I want to know what happens with the characters and where their stories take them.  I also would like to learn what happens to some of the other characters that were involved in Melodies.

Book provided by Pamela Srey for an honest review.

Link to Goodreads Link to Kindle
Link to  Nook

Review: Easy with You (With Me in Seattle #8.5) by Kristen Proby

~Synopsis~

Nothing has ever come easy for Lila Bailey. She’s fought for every good thing in her life during every day of her thirty-one years. Aside from that one night with an impossible to deny stranger a year ago, Lila is the epitome of responsible.

Steadfast. Strong.

She’s pulled herself out of the train wreck of her childhood, proud to be a professor at Tulane University and laying down roots in a city she’s grown to love. But when some of her female students are viciously murdered, Lila’s shaken to the core and unsure of whom she can trust in New Orleans. When the police detective assigned to the murder case comes to investigate, she’s even more surprised to find herself staring into the eyes of the man that made her toes curl last year.

In an attempt to move on from the tragic loss of his wife, Asher Smith moved his daughter and himself to a new city, ready for a fresh start. A damn fine police lieutenant, but new to the New Orleans force, Asher has a lot to prove to his colleagues and himself.

With a murderer terrorizing the Tulane University campus, Asher finds himself toe-to-toe with the one woman that haunts his dreams. His hands, his lips, his body know her as intimately as he’s ever known anyone. As he learns her mind and heart as well, Asher wants nothing more than to keep her safe, in his bed, and in his and his daughter’s lives for the long haul.

But when Lila becomes the target, can Asher save her in time, or will he lose another woman he loves? /span>

~My Review~
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I have enjoyed every single Kristen Proby book I've ever read. That includes all of the books within the With Me in Seattle series, as well as the Love Under the Big Sky Series.  Since I follow Kristen Proby on a number of Social Media sites, I knew this book was coming out and I preordered it back in December when preorder initially became available.  I was excited to extend the With Me in Seattle series a little further.  This novella is actually a part of the 1001 Dark Nights Series.

This book is about Detective (now Lieutenant) Asher Smith.  We initially met Asher in Tied with Me, since he was Matt's partner.  He is a single father to Casey, who is his adorable 10-year old daughter.  On a trip to New Orleans to visit his brother, Asher meets Lila (Who is initially introduced in Easy Love from the Boudreaux Series, as she's Kate's Best friend), who is also visiting friends in the area.  Their one-night-stand is uncharacteristic for both of them, and they can't seem to get each other off their minds.  About a year later, they run into each other again, only to find that they now both live in New Orleans, and Asher is investigating a murder that has Lila as the main target.

I have to preface my review by saying that while I don't dislike novellas, they're also not my favorite. I often find that the length of a novella just isn't long enough to cover all the details that are needed and the story sometimes falls short.  While I really enjoyed Easy with You, I have to admit that I think this novella fits into that category:  It just wasn't long enough.  Things felt rushed.  The story started and then it ended.  And in order for everything to come together at the end (you can't end a novella on a cliff hanger!), things were very predictable.

The story was good.  It was fun.  In the very short amount of time that was spent giving background on the main characters, we were able to get a decent handle on who Asher and Lila were.  We learned a few things about Asher that we didn't know about from Tied with Me.  I haven't read Easy Love yet, so Lila was a new character for me.  We're introduced to both Asher and Lila in the prologue when they meet during their one night stand, and then Chapter 1 goes immediately into their meeting again almost a year later.

The main conflict of the story was the fact that girls were being murdered on campus, but Lila was the main target.  And there was resolution.  They found the murderer.  But at the end of the day, because of the nature of a Novella, everything just seemed to happen too quickly.  It was built up, and it was solved.  And while everything was resolved and the murderer was found and apprehended, we know that he ends up spending most of the rest of his life in jail, but I would have liked a few more details to close it out a bit better.  We know WHY he did it - but how did he get away with it all?  I needed more.

As usual, the writing was very good, which I've come to expect from Kristen Proby.  So there was no disappointment there.  And it was a very enjoyable read.  But I think what's holding me back from giving this a 5 star review is that it was just too short.  I really would have loved to get to know Asher a little bit better.  I loved spending time with Asher and Casey, with Lila and Casey, and with the three of them together, but it would have been better if we could have had a little more time together.

All in all a fun read, but I would have loved to have more of everything in order to fill out the gaps.

Link to Goodreads Link to Kindle

Review: Kyland by Mia Sheridan

~Synopsis~

A full-length, standalone romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Archer's Voice.

Dirt poor. Hillbilly. Backwoods hick. Mountain folk.

Tenleigh Falyn struggles each day to survive in a small, poverty-stricken, coal mining town where she lives with her sister and mentally ill mother. Her dream of winning the college scholarship given to one student by the local coal company and escaping the harshness of her life, keeps her going.

Kyland Barrett lives in the hills, too, and has worked tirelessly--through near starvation, through deep loneliness, against all odds--to win the Tyton Coal Scholarship and leave the town that is full of so much pain.

They're both determined not to form any attachments, but one moment changes everything. What happens when only one person gets to win? When only one person gets to leave? And what happens to the one left behind?

Kyland is a story of desperation and hope, loss and sacrifice, pain and forgiveness, but ultimately, a story of deep and unending love.

THIS IS A STANDALONE SIGN OF LOVE NOVEL, INSPIRED BY TAURUS. New Adult Contemporary Romance: Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

~My Review~
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I have fallen in love with Mia Sheridan.  I've only read two of her books so far, both from the Signs of Love Series, Archer's Voice and Kyland.  I plan to read the other books in her series because they go so deep into these topics that are so different than anything else I've ever read.  Her writing is amazing and the topics to which she explores in her books are outstanding.  Kyland explores the topic of poverty - the brutality of dire starvation and extremely poor people.  And while love is a huge liability to leaving the poverty behind, love might be just the thing to help find hope, and eventually that freedom that they have been searching for.

Tenleigh Falyn has grown up in the hills of Appalachia in a tiny trailer with her sister Marlo and their mama who is mentally ill.  They have next to nothing, scrimp and save for the meager life they try to live with.  Kyland Barrett lives near Tenleigh, fighting starvation and hoping to just make it long enough to graduate and get out of town.  Little do Tenleigh and Kyland know that they are both holding on to hope that they will be the recipient of the Tyton Coal Scholarship, which is awarded to one member of their high school for an all-expenses paid college education at the college of their choosing.  This scholarship is the ticket out of town, out of starvation.  It's the ticket to freedom.

Both Tenleigh and Kyland are amazing.  They both have such amazing qualities, not least of all love. They love each other fiercely, will do anything for each other and those that mean the most to them.   They are determined not to fall in love.  But sometimes love just can't be prevented.  As Tenleigh and Kyland learn about each other and learn about love, everything falls apart.  I can't tell you how often I cried.  I cried for Tenleigh and Kyland.  For their love.  For their situations.  For the fact that so many things were constantly working against them.  And for their sacrifices.  As I saw their hopes and dreams fall by the wayside, I almost wanted to put the book aside and stop reading.  I was so afraid that things would be so bad that I would regret reading the end.  But I knew.  I knew that Tenleigh and Kyland would persevere.  I knew I had to keep reading.

"Someday, when I'm living my dreams, I'm going to think of all the things that broke my heart and I'm going to be thankful for them."

This book called out to me on so many levels.  I don't know what it's like to be as poor as Tenleigh and Kyland were.  I've never wanted for food, or medicine, or care.  The sacrifices that were made amazed me.  There were so many times that I was wiping my eyes as I tried to read.  So many times I wanted to put my Kindle aside and not read anymore.  But at the end of the day, I had to find out what happened to these amazing characters.  Such amazing characters that built such an amazing story.

The heat between Tenleigh and Kyland was scorching.  While they were young, they loved each other so fiercely and the passion they shared for each other literally jumped off the pages of the book.

While reading, I was so often wishing that this could be a happier story.  So much of it just seemed so sad for me.  But when I finally got to the end of the book, I realized that everything was building up to something that truly could not compare with anything else.  It is a story about hope, sacrifice, and forgiveness and it's something that will stick with me for a long long time.

"Half agony, half hope. Half pain, half ecstasy. Half grief, half joy. Half my downfall, half my savior."

While I did ultimately love this book, so much of it was so sad, that I often had a hard time pressing to keep going.  The story flowed well.  There was conflict - so much conflict.  And appropriate resolution.  But it was just so sad.  While I never have done this in the past, and have often scoffed at the idea of this, I'm actually going to say that I would give this story four and a half stars.  Why am I not giving it a full five stars?  I think because while I loved the story by the time I got to the end, there were just too many times that I was so sad that I wanted to just put it aside.  Otherwise, everything else that I look for in a story - the characters and their development, the story, the conflict and resolution - they were all Five Stars!

Link to Goodreads 
Link to Kindle
Link to Nook