ARC : Controlled Burn (Kilgore Fire #4) by Lani Lynn Vale

Title: Controlled Burn

Series: Kilgore Fire #4

Author: Lani Lynn Vale

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: October 5, 2016 Cover Model: Shane Williams Photographer: Furious Fotog 

July Dupree and Dean ‘PD’ Hargrove fell head over heels in love. When PD comes home to tell July the good news about joining the SWAT team as a tactical medic, everything changes.

July can’t fathom why PD would want to be a cop in this day and age. Wasn’t it enough that he already had a dangerous job with the fire department? Now he has to add another, even more dangerous, job to the equation? With so many cruel people in the world who make a sport out of hurting cops just because of the badge they wear, she has to make him understand. But when he refuses to listen to her reasoning, she feels she has no other choice but to issue an ultimatum: her or the SWAT team.

Dean doesn’t like ultimatums. He’s furious with July for putting him in the awful position of having to choose between a dream and her.

July never believes for a second that he’d choose the SWAT team over her, but she is wrong.

A year later, they’re both still in love with each other, but neither one is willing to budge regardless of their feelings.

July’s feelings for Dean haven’t changed, in fact her love for him has only grown. But seeing him living his life seemingly unaffected by the loss of what they had breaks her heart over and over each time she sees him.

Dean has a good poker face, though. He’s just going through the motions of his life until finally, the smoldering embers of his feelings erupt into a full-on blaze of emotion, burning through everything but his love for July. When the smoke clears, Dean wants to know if they can reignite the fire of their love or is he destined to live his life in a constant state of controlled burn?

The relationship between July and Dean (PD) is not clean cut - like/love/lust. There is plenty of that, but what makes their story so different than any other I have read is that both are working to ruin the relationship. July has deep seeded abandonment issues from her youth and mix in a close call of her brother's death and you'll have a woman that holds on too tight. I won't absolve PD of any guilt because he was bordering on P.O.S status. Neither of them were completely honest with each other. They were too busy playing house, but I didn't get the sense that they were ever friends. They shared things with each other, but there weren't any soul-bearing confessions. As a result, their initial relationship failed. 

It was sad to see July go thru such heartache. I personally didn't know who I wanted to apologize and start the initial mend of their relationship. And that is what I did enjoy. They were both wrong. It wasn't a man being a man; though, Dean was clueless about Alexa. And it wasn't a woman overreacting to every bump in the road. There were some serious issues that needed to be worked out. Issues that didn't have anything to do with the real meat of the story.

There is a sex trafficking ring (mainly full of pregnant women) that is being investigated. To go into greater detail would actually ruin the story, but let me tell you things go to Hell in a hand basket when July finds herself in their crosshairs. 

Honestly, I can't tell you if I enjoyed this book or not. Let me be more specific - I enjoyed this book because I didn't like it. There were some events in this book that completely blew me away. They were uncharacteristically Lani Lynn Vale. I could see how that could be a good thing or a bad thing.   

 

 

I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 5, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.  

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RELEASE DAY : Bad Apple (the Uncertain Saints MC) by Lani Lynn Vale

Title: Bad Apple

Series: The Uncertain Saints MC

Author: Lani Lynn Vale

Genre: MC Romance

Release Date: September 1, 2016

Model: Alex Minsky

Photographer: FuriousFotog

The road to hell is paved with good intentions… Apple “Core” Drew needs The Uncertain Saints MC like he needs air. He is barely making it through the day, and each one that goes by takes him closer and closer to hell. Literally, not figuratively. He’s a half breath away from killing himself—maybe not by taking his own life, but he’s not against making someone else do it for him. Then he meets her. One of his club member’s sister, and his whole outlook on life changes. And not for the better. Just as surely as he ruined his life, he ruins her life, too. One lapse in judgement on his part, and his one night of happiness turns into the worst nine months of his life. Which he would’ve thought was damn near impossible with the things he’s done and seen. She never saw it coming… It was the beard. The beard made her do it. That is a good excuse for having sex with a man she barely knows, isn’t it? Yeah, who was she kidding? It wasn’t the beard. It was the way he looked so dejected and solemn. The sad look in his eyes pulls her in, and the way his rough hands touch her makes her stay. All she wants to do is take that look out of his eyes, but the consequences to her actions only make things worse, not better. One day is all she gets, and he’s not willing to give her more. Until she dies, that is. Then it’s too late.

“Your brother’s gonna kick my ass you know,” I said.

“Why?” she asked.

I snorted.

“A, because he doesn’t like me. Two because he doesn’t like me,” I explained seriously.

“My brother’s suspicious,” she amended. “And he doesn’t hate you. If he hated you, you’d be treated like my brother.”

“And how’s that?” I asked in confusion, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Like a common criminal,” she expounded. “Ridley keeps him under surveillance, and he doesn’t get to come around me, him, or any of the club members.”

“Hmm,” I started walking faster. “Interesting.”

She nodded.

“He’s not here,” she informed me.

“Okay,” I said, my eyes following the movement of her finger as she brought one manicured finger up to her mouth and bit lightly on the nail.

“Do I have to spell it out for you?” She lifted her brows, her finger still rubbing lightly across her bottom lip.

I rebalanced my weight on both feet as I readied myself for whatever was going to come out of her mouth next.

I wasn’t disappointed. It was quite shocking, to say the least.

“I want you to fuck me,” she said.

She didn’t lead up to it or anything, just blurted that shit out there.

Which might’ve been why I couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

“I’m…” I hesitated.

“You’re a pussy,” she said, brows raised.

My eyebrows lowered.

“That’s certainly not what I was going to say,” I informed her. “Which you would’ve known had you not interrupted me.”

“Most people finish their sentences in a timely manner,” she said stiffly.

She was getting pissed.

Interesting.

“Desperate much?” I asked her. “You have to proposition guys that don’t want you in an attempt to get what you want?”

Her mouth dropped open in affront.

“You’re shitting me right now, aren’t you?” she asked, hurt evident in her voice.

“Yes,” I said, contrite. “But you surprised me is all. And I’m not a pussy.”

“Well, what are you?” she asked primly.

“Honestly?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“I’m trying to get into a club that my father thinks’ll be good for my PTSD and anger management,” I answered. “And to do that, I need to not piss off the members; for example, your brother.”

Her mouth thinned.

“My brother’s already let you know that he doesn’t like you. What’s sleeping with his sister going to change?” she challenged.

I paused, unsure how to answer that.

“Well…” on one hand she was correct. He wasn’t going to hate me any less if I slept with his sister.

And I did find her attractive.

Extremely attractive.

She was gorgeous.

And I’m not talking in a girl next door kind of way. I’m talking about a ‘keep her locked down in baggy pants and a sweat shirt’ kind of way and still beat the men off with a stick.

She’d be hell on the heart, that was for sure.

Her long, black curly hair came to about mid back, and her porcelain white skin seemed almost luminescent under the light of the moon.

She had long legs that looked fucking superb in those tight jeans she had on, not to mention the black Jack Daniel’s t-shirt she was wearing, cut up in that fashion that women seemed to like now-a-days, was only accentuating her curves.

And what little denial I tried to hang on to by the tips of my fingers slipped away, leaving only one thing in my mind.

I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

Not after I’d been lusting after the woman for so long, even though she didn’t know that.

“You really want this?” I asked her, crowding her so close that she started backing up out of reaction.

She licked her lips, and then nodded.

“Yes,” she said surely. “Or I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

“You know who I am?” he asked. “You’re not intoxicated and asking for things that you shouldn’t be asking for in this condition.”

She laughed in my face.

“Oh, honey. Now you’re just trying to think up an excuse to back out, aren’t you?” she glared.

I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 5, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.

 

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