Blog Tour: Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins

About Forbidden 

USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins returns with the first book in a breathtaking new series set in the Old West

Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he's always dreamed of—one that depends upon him passing for White. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the façade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything . . . and the price seems worth paying.

Eddy owes her life to Rhine, but she won't risk her heart for him. As soon as she's saved enough money from her cooking, she'll leave this Nevada town and move to California. No matter how handsome he is, no matter how fiery the heat between them, Rhine will never be hers. Giving in for just one night might quench this longing. Or it might ignite an affair as reckless and irresistible as it is forbidden…

My Review

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins is an historical romance novel that tells the story of Eddy Carmicheal and Rhine Fontaine in the Old West after the discovery of the Comstock Lode of 1859. Eddy Carmicheal is woman of color born free living in Denver, Colorado with big dreams of heading further west to California with the even bigger dream of opening up a restaurant. She is all set to go after selling all of her belongings, quitting her job, and purchasing a train ticket. However, as she was leaving the train deport she was robbed of her all her money and the train ticket to her better life. With no one else to turn to she asked her sister, who laughed in her face and sent her on her way with her carpet bag and cook stove.

Luckily she ran into a friend of her deceased father who gave her a lift west, but definitely not to California.  Once at her second destination, she met a Mormon family heading west to Utah to escape religious percussion in Iowa. This family pays her handsomely to drive one of their carts and once again she is on the way to fulfilling her dream, purchasing a train ticket and is finally on her way to California.  But as misfortune or fate would have it, she is robbed yet again and left in the desert to die.

But as destiny would have it Rhine Fontaine and his business partner Jim found her near death on their way back from Reno. They gathered Eddy up and took her to Virginia City to recover. Now Rhine Fontaine, was a kind, tall, wealthy, and oh so hot, gentleman that was born a slave, but learned at the early age of 10 that he could pass as a white man with his fair skin and green eyes. So, as he nursed Eddy back to health he could not deny that there was something about this woman that has caused him to rethink everything he thought he knew and wanted of his life.

This novel was not only a love story between a man and woman, but it was truly an American Tale. This literary work was extremely well written, well researched, and beautifully told a story that you do not here often enough. At its bare essence, you have a black woman, born free that dared to dream big, even in a world that was ever changing and evolving on views of politics, race, gender, class and religion and a man who dared to go against the grain regardless of which side of the color line he chose to be on. As a white man he supported the black community by investing in their businesses and patronage and conversely as a black man he had wealth beyond any man in the entire state and a plan in place to maintain it no matter what race he chose. 

Overall, I have no other rating to give this novel except a 5-star rating, and I recommend that you run and read Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. Not only will you be entertained by the colorful bantering between the characters and fall in love with this story, but you will actually learn something new or gain a different perspective on some aspects of American history. 

Job well done Ms. Jenkins... Job well done!!!

Goodreads 

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

About the Author

Ms. Jenkins is the nation's premier writer of African American historical romance fiction and specializes in 19th century African American life. She has over thirty published novels to date.

She has received numerous awards, including: five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards; two Career Achievement Awards and a Pioneer Award from Romantic Times Magazine; a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer's Guild, and in 1999 was named one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the 20th Century by AABLC, the nation's largest on-line African-American book club.

She has also been featured in many national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Dallas Morning News and Vibe Magazine. She has lectured and given talks at such prestigious universities as Oberlin University, the University of Illinois, and Princeton. She speaks widely on both romance and 19th century African-American history and was the 2014 featured speaker for the W.W. Law Lecture Series sponsored by the Savannah Black Heritage Festival.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

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Blog Tour: Outside the Lines by Lisa Desrochers

About Outside the Lines

The first in an edgy new contemporary romance series that follows a family on the run, from the author of the USA Today bestselling A Little Too Far series...

As the oldest son of a Chicago crime lord, Robert Delgado always knew how dangerous life could be. With his mother dead and his father in prison, he’s taking charge of his family’s safety—putting himself and his siblings in witness protection to hide out in a backwater Florida town.

Fourth grade teacher Adri Wilson is worried about the new boy in her class. Sherm is quiet and evasive, especially when he’s around his even cagier older brother. Adri can’t help her attraction to Rob, or the urge to help them both in whatever way she can. 

But the Delgados have enemies on two sides of the mob—their father’s former crew and the rival family he helped take down. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds them. And if Rob isn’t careful, Adri could end up in the crossfire...

My Review

Oustide the Lines by Lisa Desrochers is a romance novel with mob ties that introduced the readers to Robert Delgado and the Delgado Family in witness protection as a result of hit put on their lives as well as a concession to the deal their father struck with the Feds. As part of the program they are given provisions, new identities, and a new life in a small town in Florida, sans all the luxuries of the fab life they had left behind.

Sherm, being the youngest of the Delgado clan, has a teacher by the name of Adri Wilson, who is quite intuitive and sensed a few things immediately upon meeting Sherm and Rob. The first being Rob is hot, the second being Sherm is very withdrawn and maybe Rob is the reason, and the third being that there is just something slightly off when this family is concerned.

Make Me Sin by: J.T Gessinger

About MAKE ME SIN

Chloe Carmichael’s life feels pretty sweet—she’s both maid of honor and florist for her best friend’s A-list wedding, things are getting serious with her boyfriend, and her flower shop is about to get a spread in a national magazine. But it all quickly turns sour whenever the best man, Bad Habit drummer A.J. Edwards, shows his face…his handsome, unforgettable face. A.J. is everything Chloe doesn’t want: tattooed, selfish, and all-around bad news. So why can’t she stop thinking about him?

Goody two-shoes Chloe isn’t exactly A.J.’s type, either, but the chemistry between them is undeniable. A.J. will be the first to say he isn’t a saint, but there’s something he’s not saying—something that would devastate Chloe. The only way he can protect her is to push her away, but the drummer finds he needs her now more than ever. When a wedding-day confrontation reveals secrets they’re both hiding, will Chloe and A.J. ever find their rhythm again?

MY REVIEW

Make Me Sin by J.T. Geissinger is a rockstar romance novel and Book Two in the Bad Habit Series. Initially I was not quite sure what was in store, but what I got was a very good story that was simply page turning, kindle swiping, for real good. This story introduced me to Chloe, a florists and maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding and A.J. a bandmate and best man in the same wedding party. Immediately you can tell that something is up between these two, but what exactly cannot be summed up into a simple compact explanation, wrapped inside a pretty package. Chloe just can’t figure out why A.J. appears to hate her so much, but she has other things to worry about to include her overbearing mother and a boyfriend that seems a little odd to me from the moment he is introduced.

Release Blast and Giveaway: A Duchess in Name by Amanda Weaver

Victoria Carson never expected love. An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham's finishing school, she's been groomed since birth to marry an English title—the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can't matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.

Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he's devoted to his life in Italy working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family's fortune drags him back to England to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn't care to know.

Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn't so intolerable after all—but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

Book one of The Grantham Girls

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She cleared her throat and leaned forward to set her untouched sherry on the table, but his hand shot out to close around her wrist. Her breath stalled as he slid his fingers down to cover hers, gently plucking the glass from her hand. He set it down for her, and his own as well, but he didn’t lean back. The scent of his bay rum tickled her nose, and she was close enough to see the faint dark stubble beginning to form on his jaw. Surely, this close to her, he could hear her heart pounding.

His hand found her wrist again and he traced his way up to her elbow, curling his fingers around her upper arm. She burned everywhere he touched. She should get up and leave. His intentions were clear and the longer she sat here, the more awkward it would become. The moment for decision was past as he slid his hand back into her hair, holding her head gently between his palms. She wanted to push him away and flee, but she couldn’t seem to make herself move, not when he was so close, staring into her eyes this way.

“Victoria, we’ve had a bad start, you and I.” His thumb caressed her cheekbone and slowly, inexorably, he drew her face closer to his. “I’m not returning to Italy this summer. I’m staying here. And I’d like us to start again. As a real husband and wife.”

Release Day Blitz: Make Me Sin by J.T. Gessinger

About MAKE ME SIN

Chloe Carmichael’s life feels pretty sweet—she’s both maid of honor and florist for her best friend’s A-list wedding, things are getting serious with her boyfriend, and her flower shop is about to get a spread in a national magazine. But it all quickly turns sour whenever the best man, Bad Habit drummer A.J. Edwards, shows his face…his handsome, unforgettable face. A.J. is everything Chloe doesn’t want: tattooed, selfish, and all-around bad news. So why can’t she stop thinking about him?

Goody two-shoes Chloe isn’t exactly A.J.’s type, either, but the chemistry between them is undeniable. A.J. will be the first to say he isn’t a saint, but there’s something he’s not saying—something that would devastate Chloe. The only way he can protect her is to push her away, but the drummer finds he needs her now more than ever. When a wedding-day confrontation reveals secrets they’re both hiding, will Chloe and A.J. ever find their rhythm again?

Excerpt

“You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you, Princess?”

I refuse to answer him. I won’t give him the satisfaction. I can’t let him bait me. Like Jamie said, I have to show some class, and let it go. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get my feet to agree with my brain’s command to turn around and walk away. We stare at each other in silence.

He moves closer to me, his gaze never leaving mine. His voice drops so low it’s almost intimate. “You want to know what I see when you open your mouth?”

He smells like something I’d like to eat. Something warm and sugary, like a fresh-baked cookie. My mouth waters, but I’m far too stunned by what’s happening to examine my physical reaction to him. My heartbeat skyrockets.

Release Blitz: Big Rock by: Lauren Blakely

About Big Rock

It's not just the motion of the ocean, ladies. It's definitely the SIZE of the boat too.

And I've got both firing on all cylinders. In fact, I have ALL the right assets. Looks, brains, my own money, and a big cock.

You might think I'm an asshole. I sound like one, don’t I? I'm hot as sin, rich as heaven, smart as hell and hung like a horse.

Guess what? You haven't heard my story before. Sure, I might be a playboy, like the NY gossip rags call me. But I’m the playboy who’s actually a great guy. Which makes me one of a kind.

The only trouble is, my dad needs me to cool it for a bit. With conservative investors in town wanting to buy his flagship Fifth Avenue jewelry store, he needs me not only to zip it up, but to look the part of the committed guy. Fine. I can do this for Dad. After all, I’ve got him to thank for the family jewels. So I ask my best friend and business partner to be my fiancée for the next week. Charlotte’s up for it. She has her own reasons for saying yes to wearing this big rock.

And pretty soon all this playing pretend in public leads to no pretending whatsoever in the bedroom, because she just can’t fake the kind of toe-curling, window-shattering orgasmic cries she makes as I take her to new heights between the sheets.