Winner! Fault Lines Rebecca Rogers Maher

Thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to enter the giveaway and for the great comments.

The winner is: Jade.

Congratulations! I've already sent you an email.

The Not-So-Secret Baby on the Cover

This is a random post because I didn’t have a review ready for today. But, have you noticed all the books with babies on the cover? It’s insane! Yesterday I bought one, and Amazon started recommending them to me. 

Some come with adults:

Review: A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

Two books ago I broke up with this series. Obviously I have no willpower because the minute I saw this one on NetGalley I requested it. The reason I wanted to read it was because the heroine was actually the one redeeming part of what I call the book with the goats of doom. I’m happy to say that this one wasn’t awful.

Evie Stryker is the estranged half-sister of the brothers that were the leads of the past three books in the series. The reason she’s estranged is because their mother had an affair just after the boys’ father died and she was the result. The mother never loved her and she was mostly cast aside and ignored. She grew up alone and with a lot of resentment and when she left home, she never came back.

Review: Hunter’s Season by Thea Harrison

Dragon Bound was one of my favorite books of 2011, but after some disappointments with the series I started to think that it was one-hit wonder. I did enjoy Oracle’s Moon, though, so I keep reading the books. I’m happy to say that Hunter’s Season makes me feel hopeful that the magic is still there.

If you have read the previous books and novellas in the series, you know that Xanthe is an undercover guard for the Dark Fae court, and Aubrey Riordan is a chancellor whose wife betrayed him, and everyone else, when she tried to murder the queen, who happened to be the second book’s heroine. In Hunter’s Season, someone tries to kill Aubrey and Xanthe is the one in charge to protect and take care of him while he recovers. Then they fall in love and live happily ever after.

Review: How to Mend a Broken Heart by Amy Andrews

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

I haven’t read a Harlequin Medical Romance in months, maybe even years, so when I saw this one on NetGalley I decided to renew my former love for the line. 

Almost ten years ago Fletcher and Tessa’s toddler died in a tragic accident. Their inability to cope with their grief ended their marriage. Tessa moved to London and they never saw each other again. But every year she visits their son’s grave and he watches her. Now, after all these years, he’s ready to confront her. His mother has Alzheimer’s and he asks Tessa to stay with them for a while because his mother needs her. So she agrees, even though she’s still actively grieving and can’t even stand the sight of him. The situation forces her to come to terms with what happened and decide if she wants to give their marriage a second chance.

Review: Second Hand by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

As you probably know, I love Marie Sexton. She’s one of those authors who never disappoints. I’m also a fan of Heidi Cullinan, although I haven’t read all of her novels. And now that they are teaming up to write a series of books set in the fictional town of Tucker Springs, I’m very excited to see what they do together. 

Paul’s life was all about his girlfriend. He moved to a different town for her, and did everything she wanted. So when she dumps him he is devastated. Months later, he still hopes to win her back. But when she tells him that she’s living with someone else, a guy she was already sleeping with before ending their relationship, Paul decides that the best way to move on is to sell all her stuff. So he goes to the local pawn shop owned by El Rozal. They become friends, and soon lovers.

Interview & Giveaway: Rebecca Rogers Maher

Image Credit: Florin Gorgan

Today we’re interviewing author Rebecca Rogers Maher. She writes very emotional books that I recommend to fans of angsty Romance and Women’s Fiction. Please let’s give her a warm welcome.

Hello Rebecca, welcome to Romance Around the Corner.

RRM: Thank you so much for having me!

Q. For all of our readers who may not be familiar with your work, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your books?

RRM: Sure! I live in Brooklyn, New York with my husband of twelve years and our two little boys. I’m a former New York City public school teacher. A few years ago I started writing, and three books tumbled out all on top of each other. They ended up becoming the Recovery Trilogy—I’ll Become the Sea, Snowbound with a Stranger and my most recent, Fault Lines. All three are stories about real women facing very real-life problems. And as they go about dealing with these problems they meet some incredibly sexy and kind-hearted men.

Winner! Inside Bet by Katie Porter

The winner of Inside Bet (or Double Down) by Katie Porter is KellyM. Congratulations! The notification email is on its way.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on the post. Hope to see you all again. And thanks to Carrie Lofty and Lorelie Brown for providing the price.

Review: Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

When I was a kid I wanted to be a mermaid. The tail, the red hair, the cute prince… Obviously Disney knew how to sell its movies. Then I read the original story and my underwater dreams died, but I remained intrigued by these creatures. I’m surprised that mermaids aren’t more common in PNR and YA, but I’m happy to see a book that’s not about vampires or angels.

Hester comes from a line of women who died soon after giving birth. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother died within days of having their first child, all of which also happened to be girls. Hester knows that there’s something very wrong with her and has decided never to fall in love. She’s aloof, angsty and tormented, but she’s also a teenager so it’s hard to tell whether she’s like that because of a curse, or because of her age. Things get complicated when her relationship with her best friend begins to change, but her unwillingness to fall in love makes her push him away. And when a mysterious guy saves her from an attack everything changes. She feels mysteriously attracted to him and to the answers he brings. Smells like love triangle, right? Not quite, more like creepy teenage obsession mixed with disappointing unfulfilled promise of a sweet romance. I’ll explain later.

Review: All He Ever Needed by Shannon Stacey

Source: We received a copy of the book from the publisher for review. 

Shannon Stacey is one of my favorite Contemporary Romance authors, and that love is all due to the Kowalski family. Her blend of hilariously male heroes and charming heroines makes for great stories, and I’m happy to see the family back.

Mitch Kowalski is a demolition expert that spends his life traveling. It’s a great lifestyle for someone like Mitch who doesn’t want to settle down in one place. But now he’s back home to help his injured brother. He isn’t happy about that because the town doesn’t let him forget about all his indiscretions, and being a ladies’ man, there are a lot of indiscretions to remember.

Guest Author & Giveaway: Katie Porter

Image Credit

I'm happy to welcome Katie Porter to the blog. This is the co-writing team formed by authors Lorelie Brown and Carrie Lofty. Together they write Erotic Romance, and they are here today to tell us more about their new book, Inside Bet. 

Heather’s Mysterious Tattoo

By Katie Porter

Heather from Inside Bet is pretty straight laced. She’s an accountant, and has lived a very straight and narrow sort of life for more than a decade. She dresses conservatively and drives a six-year-old Camry. That’s what makes her happy—and helps her live down some pretty serious mistakes in her past. But that doesn’t mean she’s absolutely locked down. 

Guest Review: How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal

About Sarah: Who am I? I'm a part-time library science student, part-time librarian, and full-time mom. When I'm not wrangling my little girl or my husband, I'm reading all sorts of books to be able to recommend that "next" book for shy readers or those new to the romance genre. I can be found on Goodreads or on my blog at sarahsbookshelf.com.

I'm always on the lookout for new authors and different styles of romance to read. This book recently won a 2012 RITA for a novel with strong romantic elements. I was skeptical of the book to start out with. I'm not a huge fan of books told in the first person, nor do I typically like books with different voices throughout, but somehow this book managed to get past all my preconceived notions. It made me laugh, it definitely made me cry (a lot), but overall, I just didn't want to put it down and was quite sad when it was over. I should caution anyone that if you find reading books that talk a lot about food make you hungry, you should probably steer clear of this book--there are recipes galore and much description about breads and delicious foods throughout.

Review: Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book from the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

Nalini Singh is special. I don’t know how she does it, but she has created two very distinct, complex worlds. I admit that the Psy/Changeling books are closer to my personal taste, but I find the Guild Hunter series very compelling, especially now that we get to see the world through a different set of characters. I’ve been intrigued by Jason since he first appeared in the previous books, and I’m happy to finally learn what makes him tick.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the Guild Hunter books take place in an alternate present where angels and vampires live among us in relative peace. Angels have their own society and rulers, and one archangel is in charge of each territory. Raphael, the ruler of North America, has been the protagonist of the first three books, but now we also get stories for some of his closer friends and protectors. Jason, with his dark wings and ability to blend and listen to the wind, is Raphael’s spymaster and our newest hero.

Last Minute Links and Deals

Image Credit: Horia Varlan

This is an exciting week that started a bit slow, it’s Labor Day so I guess everyone must be outside enjoying what’s left of the summer. I have some last minute links and deals that I found online and I’ll share them with you in case you’re feeling a bit bored. Don’t get used to seeing much book deals on the blog because I’m lazy, but there’s always Dear Author’s Daily Deals if you’re looking for good deals.

Review: Riveted by Meljean Brook

Source:  we received a copy of the book from the author for review purposes. 

Is no secret that I’m a fan of Meljean Brook. Her characters are compelling, the worlds she creates are complex and reading her books is a wonderful experience. That’s the reason why Riveted was one of my most anticipated books of the year. Now that I’ve read it, I can tell you that the anticipation was deserved.

Annika grew up on an isolated village in Iceland, a very uncommon village. What makes it extraordinary is also the reason why it must remain a secret. So for years its inhabitants have fueled the mystery with legends and stories. But one day Annika’s foolish mistake endangered that secret and her sister, Källa, took the blame. As a result, Källa was exiled and Annika left the village to bring her back.