Sinful Sunday: All Cried Out by @AKMorgen #teaser #romance

With Jared Corbit and Savannah Martin's wedding day quickly approaching, everything should be golden for the two, but their trouble has only just begun. When the media learns of the damage Stewart Paulson has inflicted on the Talbot family, Savannah and Jared get caught in the cross-hairs.

Even worse, the past has caught up with Savannah in a big way, and nothing will prepare her or Jared for the danger headed their way or the devastating decisions they'll be forced to make as a result.  

Jared's determined to protect his fiancée from the people milling in the shadows, but good intentions only go so far. When Savannah learns the truth he's desperately trying to keep from her, their future together begins to unravel. How can she trust him when he's lying to her? And just how far is he willing to go to protect the woman he loves from her past?

All Cried Out, told exclusively from Jared's POV,  is the exciting follow up to Ayden K. Morgen's All Falls Down.

If you haven't already pre-ordered your copy, you can do so on Amazon now for $1.99! All Cried Out releases on June 7, 2015.

******

"You made dinner."

"I did."

"Thank you." Her smile widens and she leans forward, pressing her lips to mine.

I groan when I feel her tongue swipe across my bottom lip, all thoughts of her past, Lexi, and the media forgotten. My tongue meets hers and I attempt to pull her closer, but she slides out of my arms before I can even think of deepening the kiss.

"Later," she promises when I narrow my eyes at her. "We should eat."

"We should." I let my gaze rove over her slowly, taking in the way her dress hugs her curves, and her creamy skin. More tendrils of her dark hair have come loose since this afternoon, strands curling around her face.

She's radiant.

"You are so fucking gorgeous," I say, shaking my head, trying for the millionth time to figure out how I got so lucky.

Her cheeks flush and she bites her bottom lip, her eyes riveted to my face as I stare at her. And that look on her face, like she needs me as badly as I need her, sends every good intention I have flying out of my mind. My cock hardens, heat racing through me.

"Jared," she moans, shifting restlessly when she notices me readjusting myself. When she bites her lip again, looking at me with those big brown eyes, I lose it.

"Fuck the food," I mumble, reaching out to grasp her arms, dragging her toward me. Her body collides with mine, crashing into me as I crush my lips to hers, kissing her hard.

She moans into my mouth, her hands curling into fists in my shirt. Mine are all over her, touching and caressing as I devour her mouth.

"Goddamn," I growl, tugging her bottom lip between my teeth and biting gently. She tastes so good and feels even better.

Her fingers slide down my chest, fumbling with the buttons of my shirt, but they aren't coming undone fast enough for me. I need her hands on my bare skin. Now.

Leaning back, I jerk the shirt over my head, letting it fall. I'm so worked up, my breath comes in harsh pants.

Savannah's dark gaze dances across my shoulders, my chest, and down my abdomen, raking like fire.

Christ, how does she do this to me? One look from her, one touch, and I'm completely undone… out of my mind. It's hard, so hard, to go slow with her when every part of me screams to rip her dress off, bend her over the table, and take her hard.

"Jared, I need you," she whispers as I clench and unclench my hands, fighting for some semblance of control so I don't scare her. 

xoxo,

---

Ayden Reviews KIYA: Hope of the Pharaoh by @KatieTeller1

Title: KIYA: Hope of the Pharaoh

Series: KIYA Trilogy #1

Author: Katie Hamstead

Genre: Historical, Romance

Age Group: New Adult

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Links: Goodreads + Amazon

When Naomi’s sisters are snatched up to be taken to be wives of the erratic Pharaoh, Akhenaten, she knows they won’t survive the palace, so she offers herself in their place. The fearsome Commander Horemheb sees her courage, and knows she is exactly what he is looking for…

The Great Queen Nefertiti despises Naomi instantly, and strips her of her Hebrew lineage, including her name, which is changed to Kiya. Kiya allies herself with Horemheb, who pushes her to greatness and encourages her to make the Pharaoh fall in love with her. When Akhenaten declares Kiya will be the mother of his heir, Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Kiya.

Kiya must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. If she does bear an heir, she knows she will need to fight to protect him, as well as herself, from Nefertiti who is out for blood.

Ayden's Review:

Hope of the Pharaoh dives into the story of Kiya, Nefertiti, and Akhenaten, offering a glimpse at an Egyptian queen history knows very little about.

When eighteen year old Naomi (given the Egyptian name of Kiya) realizes the Pharaoh's people plan to take her young sister to the palace to wed Akhenaten, she offers herself up in Rena's stead. As a Hebrew, Kiya realizes the shame and humiliation awaiting her at the Palace and does not want to see her sister endure that. The Pharaoh's men reluctantly agree to take her instead of Rena, and Kiya's story begins.

Hope of the Pharaoh sees Kiya's struggle as she attempts to navigate the often turbulent waters of her new life. Along the way, we're introduced to a plethora of familiar characters, not always written exactly as we might have imagined them. And that's one of the great things about this book... Katie isn't afraid to take a world that has long fascinated us and turn it upside down in order to tell the story of the Queen we know so little about.

Kiya is a strong, confident young woman who meets the challenges of her new life with grace, humility, and stubborn streak that often makes her so easy to relate to. Nefertiti is portrayed as a jealous, hateful wench who isn't particularly thrilled about welcoming a Hebrew into the Palace, especially not one who will give Akhenaten an heir to take the throne. Akhenaten is a kind Pharaoh, if not a little strange. And Horemheb is a patient teacher who pushes Kiya to stand strong despite the odds stacked against her.

If you know much about Ancient Egypt, you'll notice the details aren't always on par with the history we believe to be true. In reality, Kiya was likely a Nubian or Mitanni princess and not the Hebrew girl Katie portrays. But that's another of the great things about Kiya... we simply don't know who she was or where she came from. Katie humanizes a woman shrouded in mystery for centuries, and makes her as memorable as Nefertiti or Akhenaten.

At times, I felt as if Kiya was made into a victim when, in reality, Nefertiti's hate wasn't necessarily unprovoked. During Kiya's first meeting with Nefertiti, for instance, she antagonizes the Queen by flat out stating she thinks Nefertiti will treat her poorly. And then she makes a dig about how Nefertiti can't touch her because she's going to give Akhenaten an heir. When Nefertiti states that she's already given him several heirs, Kiya makes the situation worse by pointing out that Nefertiti's daughters will never be given the throne on virtue of being women. That seemed petty to me. While Nefertiti takes things too far, I can almost see why she dislikes Kiya so thoroughly, and at times, I struggled to empathize with Kiya as a result. 

But all told, I really enjoyed the story (and Kiya herself), and am looking forward to finishing the series. 4.5/5 stars.

xoxo,

Review: Fade by A.K. Morgen

From Goodreads:
What do you do when you realize nothing in your life is what you’ve believed it to be?

When Arionna Jacobs loses her mother in a tragic accident, her world is turned upside down. She’s forced to leave her old life behind and move in with her father. Dace Matthews, a teaching assistant at her new college, is torn in two, unable to communicate with the feral wolf caged inside him.

When they meet, everything they thought they knew about life unravels. Dace has intimate access to Arionna’s mind, and something deep within her fights to rise to the surface. They don't understand what's happening to them or why, and they're running out of time to sort out the strange occurrences around them.

Their meeting sets an ancient Norse prophesy of destruction in motion, and what destiny has in store for them is bigger than either could have ever imagined. Unless they learn to trust themselves and one another, they may never resolve the mystery surrounding who they are to one another, and what that means for the world.


My thoughts:
I love that this wasn't a werewolf book. With vampires and werewolves flooding the market, having a shifter book instead felt... better.
In the beginning, Arionna, understandably, is pretty depressed after her mother's death. Then she meets Dace. She still struggles through her mother's death, but he helps her see a light at the end of the tunnel, but he also introduces her to a world she has forgotten exists.
I enjoyed this book. I love that it uses Norse Mythology and is based on some familiar characters and legends. I also enjoyed the connection to the wolf pack.
The internal dialogue gets heavy in a few places that, for me, really bogged down the pace and became distracting and repetitive. But at about halfway, this seemed to decrease, and although still present in places, I found it didn't affect the pace too much after that.
Aside from that, the concept if interesting, and often sad in places. I'm looking forward to seeing where the next book goes.

Fantasy Fridays: Creature Feature

In one of my favorite mythical tales, Odysseus and his crew faced extraordinary odds on their journey to their homeland (Ithaca) after defeating the Trojan monarchy and laying waste to Troy. Odysseus and company were captured by Calypso who wanted to marry Odysseus, forced to battle a Cyclops and contend with angry gods, and required to sail their way through the horrors of Scylla and Charybdis.

If you're familiar with the Odyssey, you know Charybdis was a sea monster who sucked unsuspecting ships into the depths of the ocean via a frightfully powerful whirlpool. Across the strait from this sea monster stood Scylla, a beast with many heads who legend says was no kinder to seafarers than Charybdis. Forced to choose between the two, Odysseus chose to face Scylla, and promptly lost six of his men.

Most believe Scylla and Charybdis were mythical beasts cooked up in Homer's mind, but that's not quite true. In reality, such a dangerous passage exists in the Straits of Messina. On one side sits Charybdis, a whirlpool. On the other sits Scylla, a large grouping of dangerous, rocky shoals. Neither are sea monsters, obviously, but it's not hard to see why Homer thought they were.

And Scylla and Charybdis aren't the only monsters ripped from the pages of fantasy that aren't quite as imaginary as we believed! The world is full of mysterious creatures we've been told don't really exist, but actually kind of do.

Here are some of my favorites:

1. Hobbits - Remember when you first realized Hobbits weren't real? If you're like me, you were beyond disappointed. But don't count the hobbits out just yet! Several years ago, researchers discovered the bones of a group of tiny people in a cave in the Indonesian island of Flores. These little people stood three feet tall and had skulls one third the size of a modern person.

Not real hobbits

2. The Kraken - In addition to being an ominous sounding monster to release, the Kraken was pretty terrifying to behold, according to those who wrote about this sea creature. In reality, the Kraken myth didn't quite hold up until a Japanese crew filmed a Colossal Squid not long ago, at which point we learned the Kraken might not be so mythical after all. The Colossal Squid can grow to fifty and sixty feet. They also have wickedly sharp hooks up and down their tentacles. Kinda creepy, right?

3. Dire Wolf - These video game characters are much larger and stronger than their gray wolf counterparts. They're excellent hunters. They're also rather terrifying, but they don't exist. Anymore, that is. Dire wolves were real once upon a time, but they went extinct over 16,000 years ago.

4. Berserkers - According to Norse myth, the Berserkers were skilled warriors who possessed superhuman strength and prowess on the battlefield. They were hard to kill, and some even turned into frightful wolves in the heat of battle. These bad boys were one of the greatest weapons the Norse people possessed. We've always assumed this was just a myth, but turns out we were wrong. Sort of. The Berserkers didn't turn into wolves, but they did take a powerful hallucinogen that made them the lean, mean, crazy fighting machines history remembers.

xoxo,

Ayden

Cover Reveal: The Single Game by Amanda Black

Cover Reveal: The Single Game

By Amanda Black

 

In this third, stand-alone installment of Amanda Black’s Apartment Novels series, sparks fly during a sexy party game. When Eden Foster’s parents tell her they’re moving from the suburbs of Chicago to the tiny farm town of Aledo, Illinois, Eden is crushed. That is, until she runs crying to her jock boyfriend, who she finds on top of her so-called best friend. Moving’s not looking so bad anymore.

Now a senior at Mercer County High, Eden is ready to re-enter the dating scene. Still burned over the betrayal of her ex, she’s looking for someone sweet and innocent. With the help of her two new friends, Zoe and Amy, Eden makes a list of what she’s looking for: an eager virgin, ready for training—and no jocks. Eden thinks she’s found what she’s looking for in Logan Black, a shy and geeky classmate. But why are Zoe and Amy convinced that the answer to her search is a party game…with kissing? Eden better get ready, because she’s about to play the Single Game.

The Single Game is the latest addition to the erotic Apartment Novels series, which began with Lily and Ethan in The Apartment and The Blank Canvas. Want more? Follow Amanda on her Blog, Facebook and Twitter! And make sure to preorder The Singe Game today!