Book Review: Model Behavior

Author:  M.E. Carter & Andrea Johnston

Title: Model Behavior

Release Date: Dec 12, 2019

Links:

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2BH8aGW
AmazonUK: https://amzn.to/2BQuCND
AmazonCA: https://amzn.to/2pjrfMy
AmazonAU: https://amzn.to/341dotd
Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/ModelBehavior_GR

50% of ebook release proceeds donated to Wildlife Center of Texas
https://wildlifecenteroftexas.org

BLURB:🔸

He thinks he’s so perfect with his model behavior . . . and he just might be.

Reading and reviewing books is my hobby. Rescuing wildlife is my passion. It never occurred to me that both my hobby and passion would collide in the strangest of ways one day.

I was perfectly content in my quiet little world. Working, reading, and supporting my favorite authors left little time for dating or a relationship. Besides, when you take the horizontal mambo off the table, you sort of limit your prospects.

Then one night, Matthew Roberts in all his cover model glory blew into my life and swept me off my feet.

~

Life as a single dad is not for the weak. Especially when your daughter is a spunky six-year-old with a passion for singing and a weakness for baby animals. I’ve been strictly focused on being her dad and smiling for the camera to provide for her future. Having my abs splashed on the cover of romance novels hasn’t left much time for a personal life. Much to my mother’s dismay.

When a storm dropped—literally—a wild animal into my life, I knew there was one person who could help us—Carrie Myers. I just never expected her to save not only the small squirrel but to also find her way into my heart.

Sometimes the most unlikely person can be your greatest gift.

I totally love M.E. Carter and Andrea Johnston's Charitable Endeavors books. They bring the book world to life for readers and the stories, while not totally interconnected kind of are, if that makes any sense.

This book was sweet...like Hallmark/Lifetime movie sweet. No really it is!

I loved Carrie and Matthew so much and as they became friends and then more than friends (that didn't have benefits, because ...of some notion of celibacy Carrie has) you really fall for them. You also for Calypso, Matthew's daughter and the dog Olaf and all the squirrels.

About the only thing that I wasn't fond of was Carrie's book blog profession. Most of us, are just typical average women who just enjoy sharing our feelings about our favorite books. Sure there are people out there making money off of reviewing, but that's not most of us.

I was more tickled by Carrie's job with animal rescue.

Probably the sweetest thing was the interaction between Carrie and Calypso. Its hard to imagine a never married girl taking to a young child so easily, but really this book goes down Harlequin romance territory here. Of course, what little girl isn't going to fall madly in love with a lady that rescues baby squirrels?

So if you are prepared for a book that's full of giggles and feels, because Carrie's life is full overthinking and well hilarity.

Here are some of my favorite quotes

"Of course, this morning when she put her shoes on the wrong feet and attempted to make her way out of the house without changing them, I wondered for a brief moment if college was a pipe dream."

"What a coincidence. He has washboard abs. I have a washboard forehead. It's a match made in Maytag heaven."

"At twenty-two you've been through college and can drink and stuff. At eighteen you're just..not even really adulting yet."

TLC Book Tours Book Review: L.A. Rotten

Author: Jeff Klima
Title: L.A. Rotten
Publisher: Alibi
Publish Date: May 12, 2015
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours & Net Galley
Book Blurb: 

As an expert crime-scene cleaner, Thomas Tanner charges big money to carve out bullets, mop up fluids, disinfect walls, and dispose of whatever’s left of whomever was unlucky enough to require his services. For a handsome young ex-con determined to stay out of trouble, it’s practically a dream job—until he discovers a grisly pattern to his work: a string of gruesome murders at a cheap motel chain, always in Room 236.

While prying into a serial killer’s nasty scheme, Thomas finds himself with a sharp-witted strip-bar waitress plastered to his side—and his conscience. Even more surprising, the killer starts prying into his life, luring Thomas into a twisted friendship. As Thomas struggles against his adversary’s wicked whims, risking the lives of the few people he holds dear, bodies pile up everywhere he turns. With a psychopath calling the shots, Thomas has little choice but to clean house once and for all.

Review: I started out reading this book not sure of what to expect. Tom isn't your typical mystery hero. He's a druggie and an ex-con and not all that likable at times. In fact most of the time I wanted to smack him. Hard!

The novel is dark and gritty. I wanted to use a better word than that, but gritty fits the bill perfectly. There's sex, and quite a lot of it, and not the pretty kind that can be found in romance novels.

Tom works for a crime scene cleaner, so he sees a lot of blood, guts and gore and he's been noticing a lot more of it in a certain hotel chain's room 236.

When he inadvertently hooks up (not in a sexual way) with a waitress from his favorite strip club, he gets involved with finding the killer, who starts communicating with him via letters, on his landlady's stationary no less. The killers letters are quite good too.

This is one book where the killer is really quite interesting. He's almost more likable than Tom at times, if a sicko killer could be likable, and if you don't want to use likable, interesting will work as well.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book at first. It was darker than most of the things I read, but when Ivy, the waitress enters the picture, she brings a little levity to the story, and he makes Tom more likable. Before she entered the picture, Tom was really kind of a dick, and that's the nicest thing you can say about him.

This book had some comparisons to the Dexter tv series, and I can kind of agree with that since Tom's investigations don't involve law enforcement.

The ending will leave you breathless and wondering what is going to happen next and you'll even feel more than a bit relieved about the outcome for one of the characters.

If you are looking for a mystery that has more of an edge, this is definitely a book to pick up. I didn't think I'd like it at first, and I didn't, I loved it!

Rating: 5 flowers

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Book Review: The Perks Of Being A Beauty

Author: Manda Collins
Title:  The Perks Of Being A Beauty
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Publish Date: June 18, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Blurb: The beautiful Miss Amelia Snow is not accustomed to being snubbed by the gentlemen of the ton. But when her mother dies unexpectedly, forcing Amelia to take employment as companion to a wealthy cit's daughter, she quickly learns to play down her looks or risk losing her position. When her employers, the Smithsons, decide to throw a country house party, she is determined to fade into the background. But how can she when the Smithson's guest of honor is Lord Quentin Fortescue, the childhood friend who stole her heart?

Younger son, Lord Quentin Fortescue, is far more interested in his host's cotton mills in the north than he is in courting the man's dim-witted daughter. But it's the girl's companion who makes him look twice. Years ago, Miss Amelia Snowe rejected his proposal without a backward glance. Quentin has molded himself into just the sort of man she'd have wanted back then, but is Amelia still the smug beauty who broke his heart? And can either of them risk their newfound positions to indulge the fiery attraction that burns between them?

Review: Manda Collins is one of my go to writers for historical romance. I always enjoy the stories and the characters.

This novella takes one of the not so nice girls from the Ugly Ducklings series and sees her reformed. Amelia snow was really the "B" word in the 3 previous full length novels. (All of which I highly recommend)

A change in fortune has brought her low and sees her working as a companion to Harriet Smithson. It is during a house party that she meets an old flame...one that she didn't treat too kindly when he had proposed to her years before.

I wish that somehow we could have had a longer story than the 70 pages of this novella. Once readers really get to know Amelia, you can't help but like her, but I really would have liked to have known more of what really made her what she was before her mother died. Even more so, I would have loved some flashbacks to when she first knew Quentin.

Oh and Quentin is the kind of hero that you really want in your own life. There may have been issues between the two, but he was instantly protective of Amelia and you knew just as quickly that he still loved her.

This is the kind of story that you will instantly feel is too short, because Manda writes characters you want to know..you want to be part of their lives.

Still if a novella was all that we could get for Amelia Snowe and Quentin Fortescue, I'll take it.

Rating: 5 flowers

18 & Over Blog Tag-A-Long

Hi! I'm Andrea, aka A Chick Who Reads. I love reading all kinds of romance; series, historical, paranormal, contemporary, erotic, chicklit. I do read other things but romance is what I love.

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