Review: The Other Brother (Calendar Men #6) by Lucy Felthouse

TheOther Brother (Calendar Men #1) by Lucy Felthouse
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating:   

Heat rating:      

Photographer Melodie Carr moved to New York City to escape and make a fresh start. Her soldier fiancé was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Iraq, and she has been struggling to come to terms with it ever since. She still feels strongly about needless death and those left behind, so when she sees a call for photographs for a calendar of topless men, with profits going to the Hero Family Fund, she’s eager to help out. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know any men that fit the profile, so she gives up on the idea. That is, until Patrick Brogan—her late fiance’s brother—turns up in New York. Seeing him brings up all kinds of memories, but she’s determined to push them aside and be friends with Patrick. She also realizes he’d be perfect for the calendar. But can she persuade him to take part?

Since this was written by Lucy, I was expecting a sexy romp through a fun theme of shooting a sexy guy for a calendar. What I got instead was a story of love lost and new beginnings. It was at times frustrating, nerve wrecking and bittersweet as I followed Melodie's journey through coming to terms with the loss of her first love and finding herself attracted to her dead fiance's brother. Lucy did a wonderful job of conveying the gamut of emotions that Melodie went through as she dealt with her confusion over her attraction to Patrick and her often rather irrational outbursts as she tried to deal with her feelings of attraction and guilt. This short story was well done.


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About the author

Lucy Felthouse

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100 publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women's Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house. She owns Erotica For All, is book editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth of The Brit Babes.

Author links: Website - Facebook - Twitter - Newsletter



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Tuesday Teaser: Frisk Me (New York's Finest #1) by Lauren Layne

Frisk Me
New York’s Finest #1 
By: Lauren Layne
Releasing July 28, 2015
Forever

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

Synopsis

After a photograph of Luc Moretti saving a tourist hits social media, he instantly becomes New York's most famous and beloved cop. When a major network decides to run a special on the "American Hero," Luc's boss gives him no choice but to cooperate in the name of good exposure for the department. Luc doesn't mind the celebrity status-what he does mind is the gorgeous brunette journalist who's been assigned to follow his every move. Especially since she also happens to be the same knockout that rejected him rather publicly the week before.

Ava Sims is a woman who gets what she wants. And what she wants is to be CBC's lead anchor-but to get there, she'll need to nail the fluff piece on the playboy cop. Luc Moretti is everything Ava knows to stay away from: a stubborn charmer with a hero-complex. But the more Ava gets to know Luc and his oddball family, the more she realizes that beneath the swagger and the blue uniform is a complex man who makes her heart beat too fast. Soon, Ava's doing the unthinkable, and falling for the best of New York's finest ...

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Excerpt

    “Holy crap! You’re like, that guy! You’re the cop!”
    Luc Moretti deliberately ignored the high-pitched squeal.
    He took a slow sip of his much-needed coffee and threw up a silent prayer that for once, the women would be talking about some other cop.
    “Tina, it is him! The cop from the YouTube video!”
    Shit.
    Pray as he might, it was never some other officer who was subjected to over-enthusiastic hero-worship. Not these days, anyway. It was always Luc who couldn’t do so much as get on the A train without hearing some form of, hey, aren’t you that guy…?
    Yes. Yes he was that fucking guy. Unfortunately.
    “Can we get a picture with you?” one of the women asked as they both closed in on him.
    “Actually, I—”
    Luc’s ready protest was interrupted by the deep voice of his partner.
    “Ladies, ladies, let’s give Officer Moretti some space! The man likes to refresh his makeup before a photo op. Moretti, did you bring that special lip balm you like to use? The one you say makes your lips all rosy?”
    Luc’s eyes narrowed at his partner as he reached up and scratched his nose with his middle finger.
    Both women had already pulled cell phones out of their purses, ready for a shot with New York’s latest hero.

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Author Info

Lauren Layne is the USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance.

Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren's gone on to publish ten books, including the bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.

Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you'll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads


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New Release: Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Heroes Are My Weakness
By: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Releasing Sept 28th, 2015
Mass Market Paperback
Avon Romance

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BAM 

Synopsis

The dead of winter.
An isolated island off the coast of Maine.
A man.
A woman.
A sinister house looming over the sea ...

He's a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She's a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.

But she's not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they're trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.

It's going to be a long, hot winter.

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Excerpt

    Annie didn’t usually talk to her suitcase, but she wasn’t exactly herself these days. The high beams of her headlights could barely penetrate the dark, swirling chaos of the winter blizzard, and the windshield wipers on her ancient Kia were no match for the wrath of the storm that had hit the island. “It’s only a little snow,” she told the oversize red suitcase wedged into the passenger seat. “Just because it feels like the end of the world doesn’t mean it is.”
    You know I hate the cold, her suitcase replied, in the annoying whine of a child who preferred making a point by stamping her foot. How could you bring me to this awful place?
    Because Annie had run out of options.
    An icy blast rocked the car, and the branches of the old fir trees hovering over the unpaved road whipped like witches’ hair. Annie decided that anybody who believed in hell as a fiery furnace had it all wrong. Hell was this bleak, hostile winter island.
    You’ve never heard of Miami Beach? Crumpet, the spoiled princess in the suitcase retorted. Instead you had to haul us off to a deserted island in the middle of the North Atlantic where we’ll probably get eaten by polar bears!
The gears ground as the Kia struggled up the narrow, slippery island road. Annie’s head ached, her ribs hurt from coughing, and the simple act of craning her neck to peer through a clear spot on the windshield made her dizzy. She was alone in the world with only the imaginary voices of her ventriloquist dummies anchoring her to reality. As sick as she was, she didn’t miss the irony.
    She conjured up the more calming voice of Crumpet’s counterpart, the practical Dilly, who was tucked away in the matching red suitcase in the backseat. We’re not the middle of the Atlantic, sensible Dilly said. We’re on an island ten miles off the New England coast, and the last I heard, Maine doesn’t have polar bears. Besides, Peregrine Island isn’t deserted.
    It might as well be. If Crumpet had been on Annie’s arm, she would have shot her small nose up in the air. People barely survive here in the middle of the summer let alone winter. I bet they eat their dead for food.
    The car fishtailed ever so slightly. Annie corrected the skid, gripping the wheel more tightly through her gloves. The heater barely worked, but she’d begun to perspire under her jacket.
    You mustn’t keep complaining, Crumpet, Dilly admonished her peevish counterpart.     Peregrine Island is a popular summer resort.
    It’s not summer! Crumpet countered. It’s the first week of February, we just drove off a car ferry that made me seasick, and there can’t be more than fifty people left here.     Fifty stupid people!
    You know Annie had no choice but to come here, Dilly said.
    Because she’s a big failure, an unpleasant male voice sneered.
    Leo had a bad habit of uttering Annie’s deepest fears, and it was inevitable that he’d intrude into her thoughts. He was her least favorite puppet, but every story needed a villain.
    Very unkind, Leo, Dilly said. Even if it is true.

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Author Info

Susan Elizabeth Phillips soars onto the New York Times bestseller list with every new publication. She’s the only four-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Favorite Book of the Year Award. Susan delights fans by touching hearts as well as funny bones with her wonderfully whimsical and modern fairy tales. A resident of the Chicago suburbs, she is also a wife, and mother of two grown sons.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads








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