Blog Tour and Review Arranged by Sara Wolf

 

Blurb

When Rose Jensen’s grandfather dies, he leaves her enough money to save her parents’ failing business and get her through UCLA. The only catch – she has to marry Lee Montenegro, the infuriating half-Spanish, all-playboy transfer. Rose and Lee’s grandfathers were fast friends, and betrothed their grandchildren to each other.

Lee wants the money to run from his suffocating family, and turns his full burning charisma on Rose, but she won’t give in. She’ll never marry someone she doesn't love, and who doesn't love her. But memories of a mysterious boy in her childhood haunt her, and Lee insists they know each other. With her parent’s pressures mounting, her scholarship slipping, and Lee’s advances heating up with more than just money-lust, Rose is torn between doing the right thing for her family, and doing the right thing for her heart.

**This story contains language and sexual scenes, some of which may be unsuitable for younger readers.

**This is the first book in the ARRANGED series.

Available at Amazon 

Bio:

Sara Wolf is a romance author who, in-between wrangling a husband and a parakeet, inhales a lot of chai tea and gardens (badly!!). She's a huge fan of Vampire Diaries, angsty love, and all kinds of chocolate. She works as a internet marketer in the day, but she'd much rather be writing tortured heroes at night. 

Website  http://sarawolfbooks.blogspot.com/

twitter username https://twitter.com/Sara_Wolf1

Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/#!/sara.wolf.3304?fref=ts

Review: Arranged

By: Sara Wolf

Price: $2.99 eBook

Genre: Romance, Angst

Release Date: March 15, 2013

 

Whoa! Arranged was an emotional journey that as a reader I got to accompany Rose Jensen as she learns about life, love and trust.  College life consists of books and studies with an occasional frat party with her dorm roommate.  Rose is a pretty girl in a simple sort of way, but when she meets Lee everything changes.

Two dead grandpa’s scheme to marry their grandchildren through an arrangement in their wills, but will the two of them fall in love and inherit what’s there’s?  Lee Montenegro has loved Rose since they were children.  Too bad an accident has clouded her memories of their time together.  Rose has never had a boyfriend, so Lee’s pursuit is totally foreign and has to learn how to be in a relationship.  His reputation with the ladies is well known, but when he finds Rose he knows that she is it for him until a jealous ex-girlfriend tears them apart.  With financial woes smothering Roses’ family, she believes the lies and shatters Lee’s soul.   Lee will make the ultimate sacrifice for Rose, and hopes she will remember his love. 

I was so knotted up and turned inside out by the end of this story that my chest hurt …..until I realized that there is a sequel.  The second half of this story had me hanging on every word.  I just had to know how it was all going to end only to find out that it wasn’t the end…..YET! Totally loved this book and anxiously await Disarranged, it’s sequel.  

Michele gives this book

Guest blog and contest from the queen of erotica Desiree Holt

How do you continue to come up with fresh new ideas and stay original in the vast sea of romance writers?

Wow. Not an easy question and not an easy answer. There used to be a television show tat opened with the line, ‘There are eight million stories in the naked city.” I think that’s how many live in my head. And when I read something that triggers an idea I start a folder on it.

For example, I found this while surfing the web one  night:

Apples and Wine:

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree.

Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of

falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the

ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think

something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just

have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to

climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Now men.... Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to

women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something

acceptable to have dinner with.

From that I can think of at least five stories I can develop.

Another thing I strive for is reality in my characters. I base so many of them on real people (or my impressions of them) so that I can make them come alive for the readers. I hate flat characters.

And my characters are almost the most important thing. My stories are character-driven and I believe if I make my characters believable, lovable/detestable and exciting, the stories will be exciting. And just a little different.

I also flavor my stories with what I hope is interesting geography. If people can imagine themselves in the setting for my story, so much so that they want to be there, then my story will appeal to them more than others.

And of course I always look for new twists. You have to have an inventive mind to write and I hope that mine most definitely is.  My plot might be reminiscent of someone else’s, but the development of it and the twists have to be totally unique. And that’s a top priority.

Blurb

Sometimes out of the frying pan and into the fire is the best way to burn.

Naked Cowboys, Book 2

Amy Stark has it all together—except for chronic bad taste in men. She’s firmly in hands-off-all-men mode when a flat tire forces her to accept the help of exactly the type of man she’s sworn off. Arrogant, cocky and condescending.

When she runs into him again later that day and then finds out her brother has invited him for dinner, the fire between them has a sizzle of a different kind.

At eighteen, Buck Montgomery left home to make his mark on the bull-riding circuit. He may have had wild success in rodeo but his personal life is in the dust, and while he’s ready to start a new life he’s wary to expose his heart. Buck knows he should tell Amy the truth, but every time he opens his mouth, hers is right there with kisses like molten lava.

When his past resurfaces at the worst possible time, Buck can only wonder if Amy will love the man he has become…or if the man he was will chase her away.

Product Warnings: Contains barnyard language and clap-your-hands-over-your-mama’s-eyes sex between a cowboy with a checkered past and a ranch girl with all the right moves

Excerpt

Amy ran her finger around the rim of her mug. “I understand you met our new neighbor. Buck Montgomery.” She made her voice as casual as possible.

Matt looked at her with curiosity. “Yeah, I did. How did you know?”

“I met him at the auction.” She didn’t see the need to tell him the flat-tire story, or the fact that just the short time she’d spent with him, only minutes, had given rise to erotic fantasies in her dreams that made her squirm when she remembered them. “He, uh, seems very nice.”

Her brother leaned forward on his elbows. “He is nice. He bought the Hayes Ranch and plans to increase the stock and bring it back up to the level it once was.”

“He must have a lot of money,” Reenie commented. “As we all know, ranching’s not cheap.”

Matt shifted his gaze from his wife to his sister and back again, his face nearly expressionless. “I believe he had a nest egg he cashed in. He’ll be running pretty close to the bone for a while, but I have a feeling he’ll make a success out of that place.”

“What do you know about him?” Amy asked. “Where did he come from?”

Matt laughed. “Amy, if you’re so interested, why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“Yes,” Reenie chimed in. “In fact, let’s invite him over for dinner.”

Amy drained the last of her coffee. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea? I mean, he seemed nice enough, but what do you really know about him?”

Matt snorted. “Damn, Amy, how much do I need to know to be a good neighbor? I’ve spent a little time with him twice, and I’m pretty sure he’s not an ax murderer on the loose.”

“That’s not what I meant, I just—”

“He’s a neighbor,” Matt stressed. “Since when did you become so antisocial?”

Since I had an unwanted physical reaction to the man. And dreams that I can’t seem to control.

“Fine.” She pushed back her chair. “Fine, fine, fine. Call him and invite him over. You can do your famous barbecue steaks.” She rinsed out her mug and put it in the dishwasher. “I have some errands to do in town. I promised Hank I’d ride fences with him this afternoon.”

Hank was the oldest of their hands, the one who’d been here the longest. He’d been the one to put Amy on her first horse and to show her “which end of the cattle eats and which end craps,” as he’d so colorfully put it.

“You know you don’t have to do that,” Matt pointed out. “You’ve got records to bring up to date and the monthly weight-gain reports to get out. And Hank just wants an audience for those tales he’s told a thousand times.”

When their parents had decided to move New Mexico, she and Matt had split up the responsibilities of the ranch. She took care of all the paperwork, which he hated, and he served as the actual foreman, supervising the hands and overseeing the daily care and feeding of the cattle as well as maintaining the fences and outbuildings. But when she was younger she had often ridden fences with Hank, listening to his. She figured by now she was the only one left who’d put up with them.

“I’m good,” she told him. “And sometimes it just clears my head to ride along with Hank.” She picked her keys up from the counter. “See y’all later.”

All the way into town, she couldn’t seem to get Buck Montgomery out of her head. She’d hardly spent much time with him, and half of that she’d been royally pissed. But the image of the man just lingered in her brain, not to mention what thoughts of him did to her body.

Wait. She was an intelligent thirty-year-old woman not given to stray erotic fantasies. Especially about men she hardly knew. It was bad enough when she fantasized about men she did know and they all turned out to be assholes. But lordy. There was just something about Buck Montgomery that set her pulse to pounding, her blood to racing and every hormone in her body to waving a flag.

She reached the center of town almost before she realized it, and considered herself lucky to find a parking place on Main Street. The entire time she did her shopping, Buck Montgomery occupied her thoughts. She was so distracted by the time she stopped at the office-supply store, she picked out some items she’d purchased the week before. The salesman jokingly asked her if she wasn’t a little young for her memory to be fading. Finally, she decided to stop and get something to eat. Maybe a full stomach would make her brain behave better. But as she went to open the door of Bit and Bite, a hand reached out ahead of her.

“Allow me.”

There it was, that deep, rich voice that haunted her dreams and sent shivers skating along her spine. And made the pulse deep inside her body throb hard and fast.

Buck.

Buy Links:

Amazon:

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Connect with Desiree:

Website

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Facebook Author Page 

Giveaway Info:

Desiree is giving away an Ebook of choice from her backlist for each blog stop plus she has two grand prizes. (1) 6 ebooks (winner's choice) from backlist and a Phoenix Agency Mug and  (2) Buck Naked mouse pad and a Wild West messenger bag. Grand prizes will be drawn via rafflecopter (code below) and individual blog prizes will be drawn from commenters. Please be sure your readers leave an email so I can get in touch with them. I will pick winners the week after tour end and contact them. 

Rafflecopter code:

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Review: Wolf's Desire by Ambrielle Kirk

Title: Wolf’s Desire
Series: Caedmon Wolves #4
By: Ambrielle Kirk 
Price: $2.99 eBook 
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Shape shifter 
Released: March 30, 2013

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wolfs-Desire-Caedmon-Wolves-ebook/dp/B00C4BERTS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367892610&sr=1-1&keywords=ambrielle+kirk

  Case closed. Suspect arrested.  But she knows what she saw the night her husband stashed her in the trunk for safe keeping….a large wolf attacked him. Hiding in the shadows late one night as a man broke into her house, he showed her a side of her late husband that she never knew existed, and she startles him causing him to drop what h tried to escape with. 

Aiden Price was a natural born protector, but on the cusp of his retirement he is called in for one more case.  A widow that needs his innate talent, but he was not prepared for Keira.  The moment he smelled her, his wolf cried “mate”.   When Aiden discovers what the intruder was after, he knows the importance of the item to his clan and must protect them both with his life. 

One the run, Aiden is forced to expose his secret to Keira, but how will she react?

I love this series!  The men are sexy.  The women are strong and a tad stubborn, but their chemistry is amazing.  Ms. Kirk’s Caedmon Wolf Series is addicting and I can’t wait for the next book this summer.

Michele gives this book

Interview & Contest with author Amanda Forester

Today we welcome historical romance author Amanda Forester to RomFan Reviews.

Tell us a little about your newest release A Wedding in Springtime.

Five minutes into Miss Eugenia Talbot's presentation at court, notorious rogue Mr. William Grant makes her laugh before the queen, ruining her debut. To hush up the scandal, Genie needs to make a brilliant marriage, and fast.  Genie's aunt hires a matchmaker to find a suitor—anyone except the infamous William Grant—but amiable Genie shows a disturbing tendency to follow her heart.  When a traitor creeps closer, threatening to ruin more than just her reputation, Genie and Grant are drawn into a dangerous world of deceit and intrigue, where losing their hearts could mean their ultimate undoing.

Is this the beginning of a new Regency Series and if so what is up next?

Yes, this is the beginning of a three book series following Regency couples brought together by a mysterious matchmaker to London's elite society.  The next book, Midsummer Bride is scheduled to be released November 2013, followed by Winter Wedding in 2014.  I am also excited to be writing some crossover novellas that connect my medieval Highlander books with my Regencies.  Highland Bride's Choice will be coming out as an e-book this fall and will tell the story of how the ancestors to my Regency heroes married Campbell brides.

If you could go back in time where would you go?

Tough question!  There is so much I would like to do and see.  As a writer I would love to visit Regency London and actually see, hear, feel, taste, do all the amazing things of that age.  Which makes me wonder - in 200 years would people want to come back in time to visit us?

What do you hope readers take with them after reading one of your stories?

I hope my readers have a fun time reading my stories and feel encouraged, hopeful, and refreshed.  I started reading romance novels during a stressful time in my life and they helped give me a needed break, some hope, and a laugh, which helped me through some rough times.  If I can give that experience back to someone else I would be very happy.

Did you have any other careers before devoting yourself to being a full-time writer?

Ah, the day job.  When I'm not writing about my Regency rogues I work part time as a research psychologist.  I think working in the field of psychology has been helpful in creating believable characters.  Even the villains don't think of themselves as such.  Everyone needs to have a credible back story, even if it never makes it to the page, I need to know it so I can understand the character from their own unique point of view.

What’s something fans would find fascinating about you?

Gosh, I'm not sure spending hours upon hours typing away at the computer gives me a lot of time to be fascinating!  Let's see, I have had bad luck (or good luck depending on how you look at it) getting caught in electrical storms when enjoying the great outdoors.  I've been caught on the top of a mountain ridge, in a canoe in the middle of a lake, and on a mountain trail with a grizzly bear.  Yah, maybe that's why I don't go hiking so much any more... 

What books or authors have most influenced your life?

When it comes to Regency romance my two bigger influences are Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.  Both have inspired me greatly by creating a world I wanted to live in.  Another influence, though it might sound strange, it my love for Masterpiece theater mysteries.  I love the rich historical settings and of course the mystery.  I like to put a bit of a "who-done-it" in every book.

Do you work on one project at a time? Or do you multi-task?

My brain is happy when I can work on one project at a time but that is not always possible.  Usually I am living somewhere betwixed and between.  For example, right now I am blogging about my newest release, A Wedding in Springtime, while I am doing copy edits for Midsummer Bride, at the same time as I am writing Winter Wedding.  Makes me dizzy just thinking of it.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? How has that childhood dream affected your career?

I wish I could say I wanted to be a writer but it never crossed my mind!  When I was a kid I wanted to be a teacher, because I wanted to be like my mom.  As I grew up I realized I could embody many of the attributes of kindness, compassion, intellectual curiosity doing many different occupations, such as research and yes - writing.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers? 

 I find my white board to plot out stories to be very helpful.  I have recently tried writing with Scrivener, which I have found helpful as well.  These tools are great, but one of the most important things is to live a balanced life.  The brain doesn't work well when you are so tired your head hits the keyboard.  Sleep, exercise, good food, friends, and hobbies other than writing are all important.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever done in the name of research?

I once asked an acquaintance who was going to Scotland to tell me how me how it smelled.  Lots of things I can get from the internet, but how a place smells is not one of them.  It made perfect sense to me at the time, but I think she must have thought I was crazy! 

Please share any links you would like listed in the Interview. Website, blog, Facebook, Twitter.

Thank you for inviting me to chat!  I love to hear from readers so come visit me at my website, facebook, or twitter.

Contest:

Amanda is giving away one copy of A Wedding in Springtime.  Leave a comment with your email address to be entered.  Contest is open to US and Canada residents only and a winner will be drawn on May 8th.  Remember to include your email address or your comment will not count.