Spotlight & Giveaway: All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire

Hello readers! I'm exciting to spotlight Jamie McGuire's newest release, All the Little Lights, because it sounds wonderful! Just the right mix of second chance romance with a bit of mystery!  

Below we have an excerpt, a special message from the hero, Elliot and an AMAZING giveaway of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of All the Little Lights! 

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire
Publication Date: May 29th 2018 by Montlake Romance
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

About the book:

The first time Elliott Youngblood spots Catherine Calhoun, he’s just a boy with a camera, and he’s never seen a sadder and more beautiful sight. Both Elliott and Catherine feel like outcasts, yet they find an easy friendship with each other. But when Catherine needs him most, Elliott is forced to leave town.

Elliott finally returns, but he and Catherine are now different people. He’s a star high school athlete, and she spends all her free time working at her mother’s mysterious bed-and-breakfast. Catherine hasn’t forgiven Elliott for abandoning her, but he’s determined to win back her friendship…and her heart.

Just when Catherine is ready to fully trust Elliott, he becomes the prime suspect in a local tragedy. Despite the town’s growing suspicions, Catherine clings to her love for Elliott. But a devastating secret that Catherine has buried could destroy whatever chance of happiness they have left.

 Excerpt:

A Special Message from Elliot:

My name is Elliott. You don’t know my story yet, but you will. I spent my summers with my aunt and uncle just down the street from Catherine. She lives in a looming, rickety bed and breakfast called the Juniper, and spends most of her time outside, away from the memories that live between the Juniper’s walls amidst more tangible dangers that I never knew existed until now.

It’s not so much that I fell in love or even that I fought for it, but that a war is waging inside Catherine’s home—one I can’t fight for her. It doesn’t matter how strong I am, or how determined I am to stay. I can only get close enough to observe her pain in detail. And, so I stay, and wait, and help her the only way I know how; to do what I couldn’t for her before.

I hope you’ll understand.

About the Author:
Jamie McGuire is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Walking Disaster, the Maddox Brothers series, the Providence trilogy, and the international bestseller Beautiful Disaster, which paved the way for the new-adult genre. She was the first independent author in history to strike a print deal with retail giant Walmart, and her work has been translated into fifty languages. She lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Jeff, and their three children. To learn more about Jamie, visit www.jamiemcguire.com, or follow her on Twitter @JamieMcGuire.

Connect with Jamie McGuire:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Simply fill out the rafflecopter below for a chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of All the Little Lights! 

Review: Forged in Ember by Trish McCallan

Forged in Ember (Red-Hot SEALs #4) by Trish McCallan
Publication Date: May 15th 2018 by Montlake Romance
Pages: 394
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

About the book:

In the final novel in the scorching Red-Hot SEALs series, a desperate mother and a Navy SEAL fight fire with fire to protect their love and save the world…

Amy Chastain has made a lot of enemies—none so ruthless as the insanely powerful New Ruling Order (NRO). When they killed her husband, it was hell. Then they targeted her children by injecting them with a dangerous, experimental isotope. Now Amy trusts only one man to help her: the ex-commander of SEAL Team 7.

In the company of Navy SEALs, Jace “Mac” Mackenzie was in his physical element. Now he’s on the run from the same cabal that poisoned Amy’s children. That doesn’t stop him from launching a mission to bring down the NRO—and find an antidote. But the clock is ticking. And as the sparks fly between him and Amy, Mac realizes he has more to lose than ever before.

As Mac closes in on the NRO, he uncovers a plot that threatens more than Amy’s children. Now it’s a race against time to stop a global conspiracy, save the woman he loves, and protect the family that’s starting to feel like his.

My Thoughts:

Forged in Ember was a thrilling conclusion to the Red-Hot SEALs series!  A series full of danger, action, suspense and characters I’ve grown to love and care about.

I have been looking forward to Mac and Amy’s romance since we’ve been building toward it for quite sometime now, and it did not disappoint.  Mac, SEAL Team’s leader has been an abrasive, foul-mouth character throughout the series, so I was pleased to get his softer side, and find out what was behind all that edge.  Mac had good reason to put up a shield, but Amy and her boys break that barrier and burrow right in!

Amy has been through so much, losing her husband five months earlier when the NRO murdered him.  Now finding out her boys were injected with a lethal tracking compound, they’re in a race to find a cure before it’s too late.  Yet, with all of that, Amy feels shored up by Mac, and his unwavering support. When he’s near, a calm settles over her, and their attraction heats up to the point of distraction!

There’s a lot going on here, the future of Amy’s children as well as the future of the human race, but the focus is on Amy, Mac and her boys.  As a mother, I could easily relate to Amy’s powerful, on-the-edge-emotions and get how she could fall in love again so soon after her husband’s passing. 

I’m sad to say goodbye to the series, and I wonder if we’ll get more stories from this world because Wolf and Jillian’s story was left open when I wanted more.  I guess we’ll see.

3.5 Suns

Review: Lennon Reborn by Scarlett Cole

Lennon Reborn (Preload #4) by Scarlett Cole
Publication Date: May 1st 2018 by Swerve
Pages: 384
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

About the book:

Lennon McCartney is not a broken man. Because being broken implies being whole once. When a horrific accident deprives him of the one thing he loves―his talent as a fierce and explosive drummer―Lennon is left with a life chained by an abusive mother, by crushing guilt over a tragic past. A life he doesn’t want.

Dr. Georgia Starr is a legend. She’s one of the most successful neurosurgeons in the world, coming from a long-line of respected New York doctors. Her life is built around solving complex medical cases in order to bring relief and hope to sick children. But the one problem she can’t solve is how to live her life. How to be shake loose the burden of being her elitist, arrogant father’s daughter. How to be free.

Can a man who despises his life and a woman who desperately needs to live find the answers, and love, with each other?

My Thoughts:

Can I just say I loved Lennon Reborn?!!

Lennon Reborn is a rocker romance, which usually gives me pause since I always worry about outside influences ruining the relationship.  So much temptation.  But this story is not your typical rocker romance and other women, groupies have zero factor in the story. 

This is book four in the Preload series, but I haven’t read the previous and it didn’t have a negative impact my enjoyment.

Lennon is the drummer for Preload, a rock band born from boys growing up together in a group/foster home.  As you’d expect, Lennon has issues from his childhood, and even though the bandmates and their families are like Lennon’s family, he’s always felt like the outsider in the bunch.  He hasn’t fully shared the details that led him to the group home as an adolescent, not fully letting anyone close or inside all his chaotic thoughts.  Lennon believes himself defective, unworthy of love, the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz, without a true heart.  Of course, all his actions and interactions with his bandmates and others prove him wrong if he’d just pay attention and let some of the walls he’s built down.

All this is rattling around as the band has an accident and Lennon is badly injured.  Georgia Starr, a brilliant pediatric neurosurgeon, is smack in the middle of things and ends up playing a huge role in Lennon’s road to recovery and overcoming his past demons. 

Georgia has her own issues to deal with as well.  Her life is pretty much all work with very little play.   She was raised *pressured* to be the best, and yet that doesn’t ever seem good enough for her snob of a father.  Georgia’s father was a condescending jerk!

Lennon was a sweet, loving, soulful man, despite his claims otherwise.  I just loved this man so much! Georgia was also lovely, and down to earth; respectful of Lennon’s need to do things on his own.  She supported without suffocating or emasculating Lennon in the process.  Their romance progressed quickly but still felt natural.  The romance felt realistic while still being all kinds of hot! 

I’ve read a romantic suspense/action/thriller story from Scarlett Cole in the past, and really loved it, but I’m don’t gravitate towards rocker romances.  However, Lennon Reborn was captivating and moving, so I’m glad I took a chance!  I would love to go back and read the prior books in this series since Cole’s writing is hard to put down! 

5 Suns

4-Book Romance Giveaway!

Hello readers!  I haven't posted for a while.  Real life has been time consuming, lol!  Anyways, I'm back with a Romance Giveaway, one of a few I'll have coming to the blog in the next few weeks.  I also plan on posting more reviews, probably minis, but something. Hope you've all had some wonderful reads lately! Have any recommends? If so, let me know in the comments below.

At any rate here is the giveaway:

(click on title for Goodreads link)

Real (Real #1) by Katy Evans (a signed copy)

About a Dog (Bluff Point #1) by Jenn McKinlay

Barking Up the Wrong Tree (Bluff Point #2) by Jenn McKinlay-(my ARC copy)

When I Need You (Need You # 4) by Lorelei James (loved!)

Fill out the rafflecopter for a chance to win.  US Residents only.  Good luck!