Anne Middleton never plays by the rules. She is willful when she should be obedient and unabashed when she should be decorous. Worse still, she can never resist a good wager... or a very naughty book. And Confessions of a Courtesan is about as sensational and risque as a book can be. Michael Grey - Earl of Thornhill - had once courted Anne's sweet and modest sister. But whilst Anne is certainly no lady of decorum, her bold impulsiveness slips through his armor, and propriety is forgotten. Now he too is immersed in the book of forbidden delights, where each page is an invitation to sin and a guide to pleasures unknown... Roused by heady desire, Michael tempts Anne in a way she cannot resist - a wager. Thus begins a game of chance, where coins have been replaced by a currency that is far more illicit. And the stakes of seduction are dangerous indeed... A Scandalous Novella
Take A Chance On Love With "The Wager"
Anne Middleton never plays by the rules. She is willful when she should be obedient and unabashed when she should be decorous. Worse still, she can never resist a good wager... or a very naughty book. And Confessions of a Courtesan is about as sensational and risque as a book can be. Michael Grey - Earl of Thornhill - had once courted Anne's sweet and modest sister. But whilst Anne is certainly no lady of decorum, her bold impulsiveness slips through his armor, and propriety is forgotten. Now he too is immersed in the book of forbidden delights, where each page is an invitation to sin and a guide to pleasures unknown... Roused by heady desire, Michael tempts Anne in a way she cannot resist - a wager. Thus begins a game of chance, where coins have been replaced by a currency that is far more illicit. And the stakes of seduction are dangerous indeed... A Scandalous Novella
Deflowering "Virgin" Could Prove To Be A Very Thorny Endeavor
"Virgin" is the rather quirky story of 21-year old Ellie Kolstakis, and her angst-filled quest to stamp her V-card "expired".
This is intended as a very cute and light hearted read.
Sadly, however intentions and execution don't always good bedfellows make.
From the way that our put upon heroine talks, you'd think that she is sporting a hump, no teeth, and skin just three shades shy of "horned toad green". When in truth, her only problem really seems to be a bad case of " I have absolutely no idea what I'm working with...or how to use it."
What Ellie does have,it seems, is an annoying penchant for riding the self deprecation train from cute and endearing to vapid and maudlin.
And said train blazes a deep and very wide trail through this entire read.
Adding to the tomfoolery, are Ellie's two over sexed friends who never miss an opportunity to:
A. Give her bad advice.
B. Flaunt their varied but less than stellar exploits.
C. Try and fail to help at every turn.
That is not to say that there are not some chuckle worthy moments mixed in among the emotional fits and and starts. It is, in fact, these spontaneous moments of levity that are the saving grace for the story.
Unfortunately, there is a rather large "sea of woe" that one is forced to cross before the respites of self realization and common sense come into view.
Red & Wolfe 4 Gives A Whole New Meaning To "Happily Ever After"
My Thoughts
With that being said,
I must warn you that this will not be my usual, detail ladened review.
Why?
Because dear reader...
This is where all the good (insert appropriate expletive here) happens!
And as much as I would love to be that friend that comes over and is all...
"This happened, and then that happened, and then OMG!"
I just can't.
All I can say is this is where all the nagging questions that you just couldn't get out of your head for WEEKS after reading parts 1-3 get answered.
This is also where the sex between Red and her fabulous Wolfe goes from "a little WICKED" to "bring in the fire hoses downright DIRTY"!
And let's not talk about the deep emotional connection between Red and Wolfe, that has managed to creep in there, while we unsuspecting readers were distracted by all the sex!
Reading this book is like being a three year old at the circus. There are just so many great things happening at once that you don't know where to look first.
But...
Just in case all of my rambling hasn't convinced you to either buy this book, or that I should be committed to the nearest mental institution.
Here is a non spoilery highlight list.
1. R&W have mind blowing sex.
2. Questions about Wolfe's backstory are resolved.
3. There are lots of WTF moments with baddies, guns, and pain.
4. R&W have mind blowing sex.
5. There is a beautiful" happily ever after" bow.
Still want to know more?
Do yourself and your libido a favor and buy this series!
YA Reads Blog Tours Presents: XY
So wrong in fact, that parents of intersexed children are mandated by the government to have their children sexually assigned through surgical means at birth.
Choice, because Ork does not treat being intersexed as a malady to be despised or corrected. Fear, because of the specters of societal ignorance and intolerance that are an everyday part of Ork's life.
Savor The Illicit Passion of "His Forbidden Lady"
It's The Same Old Romance In "Different Dreams"
Light Up Your Night With This HOT Title From Pocket Star + Giveaway
The locker room welcomed me with the smell of freshly washed uniforms and leather workout equipment. The familiar scents tickled my nose and I envisioned my locker room back home. I remembered giving speeches to my team, rallying them against our foes. I felt like a generalsometimes. Here, I just listened. Sure, I liked everyone, but I really wished I could just be myself. I rolled my stiff shoulders and decided that tape wasn’t all I needed—a long hot shower would do my body a world of good. And I didn’t want to let the guards have the satisfaction of getting me out of their hair so soon.I dropped my clothes at the threshold of the locker room and the adjoining shower room. I was never weirded-out by the team showering together. It was what athletes did. When you’re there, making jokes under the steaming water, splashing and commiserating, it was almost better that you were naked. It showed your trust. The team saw you at your most vulnerable. I wanted them to know they could trust me, so, therefore, I let them see my boobs. Common sense. It did kind of make me sad that even though we’d been playing together since September, I couldn’t really call many of them my friends. Except for my roommate, Callie.The weirdest thing was the only person I had met besides Callie that I really felt a connection to was the team’s landlord, whom they had nicknamed the Red Devil. Her real name is Scarlett. I had actually never spoken to her, but something about her drew me in. She was intimidating ashell—tall like us basketball folk, flaming-red curls that hung to her waist, and heels that could kill small animals that skittered into their path. The team hated her strict curfews and neat-freakery. I liked her. Powerful women were cool, and it pissed me off when they were labeled “bitches” just because they knew what they wanted. Plus, I liked that she owned a little new-age shop in town that, rumor has it, has a secret back room. So yeah, Scarlett was cool. Scary, but cool.I made my way across the white tile floor, dodging cold puddles, and cranked my lucky showerhead number thirteen to a scorching blast. Every time I had picked this one, we won, so I never showered anywhere else. Except at home—my real home, that is. I stood under the scalding deluge and tipped my head up to feel the hot spray in my mouth. I had tosinge off the thin layer of failure from last night’s game. I grabbed a loofah and scrubbed my skin to a near polish. Rolling my shoulders, I took a squirt of the lavender-scented shampoo and worked it into my long curls.Sighing, I let my naked back slouch against the cold tiles as I worked my scalp. My ex, Ty, had loved giving me massages. But that was all he wanted, touching. College was supposed to be a fantastic dating scene, but all I ever got were guys who wanted me for the wrong reasons. Boyswho were lazy and easy. Not that I had an ideal guy in mind, but I just wanted to work for it. I wanted the hunt. Lamenting my permanently single status, I watched the last few soap bubbles drop from my hair to the floor. Absentmindedly, I turned and reached for my towel and foundnothing. I glanced around the empty room. Always, without fail, I’d put my towel within arm’s reach of my lucky showerhead. How could I forget that today? I really was off my game on several levels. Padding wetly, dripping like a mermaid, I made my way toward the locker room’s entryway where my clothes sat.Only, my clothes weren’t there either.I took a tentative step into the locker room and turned toward my locker, where at least a practice uniform would be waiting for me. Or maybe I left my clothes there. Get your head together, Thea.Every time I saw that locker, I’d chuckle. My obnoxious Greek last name was too long to fit on the nameplate, or my jersey for that matter, so instead of reading PAPASTATHOPOULOS, it just said PAPAS. That’s why the team had taken to calling me “Pops.”But instead of seeing my truncated name or a pile of clothes, I saw a guy.
"Like No Other" Brings a Different Voice To Conteporary YA
**A Summer 2014 Indie Next List Pick**
**A 2014 Junior Library Guild Selection**
**A Los Angeles Times Summer Reading Guide Selection**
**An Entertainment Weekly YA Novel to Watch Out For**
Fate brought them together. Will life tear them apart?
Devorah is a consummate good girl who has never challenged the ways of her strict Hasidic upbringing.
Jaxon is a fun-loving, book-smart nerd who has never been comfortable around girls (unless you count his four younger sisters).
They've spent their entire lives in Brooklyn, on opposite sides of the same street. Their paths never crossed . . . until one day, they did.
When a hurricane strikes the Northeast, the pair becomes stranded in an elevator together, where fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise risky connection.
Though their relation is strictly forbidden, Devorah and Jax arrange secret meetings and risk everything to be together. But how far can they go? Just how much are they willing to give up?
In the timeless tradition of West Side Story and Crossing Delancey, this thoroughly modern take on romance will inspire laughter, tears, and the belief that love can happen when and where you least expect it. -Goodreads
Both Devorah and Jaxson are bright, honest, and hardworking young people whose coming together would have been a welcome happening, had circumstances been different.
Though this story is touted to be a modern-day West Side Story, one quickly comes to find that this story is not so much about Devorah and Jaxon as a couple, as it is about Devorah choosing to live a life of her own making.
Being female in the highly patriarchal society of the Hasidic Jew doesn't leave Devorah with many options or opinions concerning her life path.
Her chance meeting with Jaxon and the look beyond the veil that has until that point surrounded and insulated her life, changes all of that forever.
This is at times a very hard book to read, because it is very difficult to fathom that there are still communities in America where the subjugation of women and girls is sanctioned and condoned.
That being said.
The way that this book handles the conundrum in which Jaxon and Devorah find themselves is first rate.
There is a sadness that pervades the lives of the women and girls in Devorah's life. A kind of unspoken resignation that their lots in life as mothers and wives is all that they are allowed to aspire to.
Seeing that Devorah has dared to break free from said mold and is daring to aspire to more in both life and love is...priceless!
"For Her Spy Only" Proves That Sometimes Secrets Can Hold The Key To Something Wonderful
So attracted in fact, that when he alludes to thoughts of the ravishment of her virtue, she is more than willing to see to it that he makes good on his jest.
What she nor he realize is that the nights of blazing passion that they share will have far reaching effects on both their lives and their hearts.
Authoress Robyn DeHart strikes again. This time coupling brazen and undeniable passion with secrets of a more personal nature.
In both Winifred and her dashing leading man, we find people unfairly maligned by the ravages of societal gossip and scandal.
He, because of a tragedy surrounding his late wife. She, because of vicious lies told by the man who left her at the altar.
Because this is a novella, the pacing of the story is relatively fast. When the intensity of the feelings that the two main characters share is taken into account however, one is very glad for the breakneck pace of this read.
The sensual elements in this story are first rate. While the sex between these two is a thing of beauty to read. It is the emotional connection that the desire cloaks, that serves as the clincher for readers.
The jewel buried within this tale is not the relationship shared by Alistair and Winifred, but in a secret that the two share.
It is because due to the discovery of said secret that these two are finally able to merge their hearts. Thereby tying a most unforgettable "happily ever after" bow.
Fly With The Aces in "Close To The Sun"
Fireship Press
eBook; 404p
Close to the Sun follows the lives of fighter pilots during the Second World War. As a boy, Hank Milroy from Wyoming idealized the gallant exploits of WWI fighter aces. Karl, Fürst von Pfalz-Teuffelreich, aspires to surpass his father’s 49 Luftsiegen. Seth Braham falls in love with flying during an air show at San Francisco’s Chrissy Field.
The young men encounter friends, rivals, and exceptional women. Braxton Mobley, the hotshot, wants to outscore every man in the air force. Texas tomboy Catherine “Winty” McCabe is as good a flyer as any man. Princess Maria-Xenia, a stateless White Russian, works for the Abwehr, German Intelligence. Elfriede Wohlman is a frontline nurse with a dangerous secret. Miriam Keramopoulos is the girl from Brooklyn with a voice that will take her places.
Once the United States enter the war, Hank, Brax, and Seth experience the exhilaration of aerial combat and acedom during the unromantic reality of combat losses, tedious bomber escort, strafing runs, and the firebombing of entire cities. As one of the hated aristocrats, Karl is in as much danger from Nazis as he is from enemy fighter pilots, as he and his colleagues desperately try to stem the overwhelming tide as the war turns against Germany. Callous political decisions, disastrous mistakes, and horrific atrocities they witness at the end of WWII put a dark spin on all their dreams of glory.
Blogger Praise for Close to the Sun
“Donald Michael Platt’s Close to the Sun is an amazing story told from the perspective of average male fighter pilots in the onset and during WWII, juxtaposing between various men from many sides of the war. The details in this novel were spectacular, creating imagery and depth in the scenes and characters, as well as the dialogue being so nostalgic and well-written it felt right out of a 1950’s film. The romantic nuances of his storytelling felt incredibly authentic with the tug and pull of the men being called to serve and the women whom they loved who had their own high hopes, dreams, or work. I loved how he portrayed this women the most—strongly and fiercely independent. I’ve read several other books by Platt, and this is the best one I’ve read yet! I couldn’t stop reading. ” – Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi, Hook of a Book“Donald Platt’s Close To The Sun, is nothing short of Historical Fiction gold. Platt’s flair for emotionally provocative storytelling makes this book attractive to both male and female readers. Seamlessly weaving the threads of action and feeling into a brilliant tableau of humanity. This is a masterfully penned tale of war, ambition, love, loss, and ACES!” – Frishawn Rasheed, WTF Are You Reading?
“Fast-paced and riveting I couldn’t get enough of Hank, Karl and Seth’s exploits! CLOSE TO THE SUN is a thrilling novel that leads readers through idyllic dreams of heroism and the grim reality of war. Platt provides readers with a unique coming-of-age story as three adventure-seeking boys discover far more than how to be an aerial combat pilot. CLOSE TO THE SUN is an amazing tale of adventure, heroism, war and the drive within us all that keeps us going when things look bleak.” – Ashley LaMar, Closed the Cover
“I found Close to the Sun to be an entertaining read, it was well written, with well developed characters, these characters had depth and emotion. A unique plot, told from the point of view of pilots prior to and during World War II. It was a well researched and interesting book” – Margaret Cook, Just One More Chapter
Buy the Book
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About the Author
Author of four other novels, ROCAMORA, HOUSE OF ROCAMORA, A GATHERING OF VULTURES, and CLOSE TO THE SUN, Donald Michael Platt was born and raised in San Francisco. Donald graduated from Lowell High School and received his B.A. in History from the University of California at Berkeley. After two years in the Army, Donald attended graduate school at San Jose State where he won a batch of literary awards in the annual SENATOR PHELAN LITERARY CONTEST.
Donald moved to southern California to begin his professional writing career. He sold to the TV series, MR. NOVAK, ghosted for health food guru, Dan Dale Alexander, and wrote for and with diverse producers, among them as Harry Joe Brown, Sig Schlager, Albert J. Cohen, Al Ruddy plus Paul Stader Sr, Hollywood stuntman and stunt/2nd unit director. While in Hollywood, Donald taught Creative Writing and Advanced Placement European History at Fairfax High School where he was Social Studies Department Chairman.
After living in Florianópolis, Brazil, setting of his horror novel A GATHERING OF VULTURES, pub. 2007 & 2011, he moved to Florida where he wrote as a with: VITAMIN ENRICHED, pub.1999, for Carl DeSantis, founder of Rexall Sundown Vitamins; and THE COUPLE’S DISEASE, Finding a Cure for Your Lost “Love” Life, pub. 2002, for Lawrence S. Hakim, MD, FACS, Head of Sexual Dysfunction Unit at the Cleveland Clinic.
Currently, Donald resides in Winter Haven, Florida where he is polishing a dark novel and preparing to write a sequel to CLOSE TO THE SUN.
For more information please visit Donald Michael Platt’s website. You can also connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.