#Review "Respectable Riot" by Karen Renee
January 8, 2020 January 8, 2020 ~ Felicia Denise	~ Leave a comment
If Jane Palmer didn't have bad luck, she'd have none at all.
Tragedy makes Jane realize the wrongness of her marriage and she decides to divorce her husband, Trent, but the sleezy up-and-coming politician refuses to allow divorce to mar his campaign… even after she has him served with divorce papers.
Things go from bad to worse when she learns Trent is being blackmailed to cause trouble for businesses owned by the Riot motorcycle club. Her bestie is living with a member of the club and his cousin, Beast, has already "rescued" Jane twice.
Maneuvering through the divorce is hard enough but when Trent doesn't come through fast enough for the blackmailer, Jane becomes a target, and Beast realizes the high-maintenance political wife means more to him than he cares to admit.
Though it moves a bit slow, I enjoyed Jane and Beast's story. He is typical alpha male, but his own personal baggage keeps him yo-yoing with his feelings for Jane before he finally gives in.
While I believe I understood Jane's mindset for the most part, I didn't like her. I appreciated her growth through the story, but at times, it felt forced… and annoying. She was a virtual doormat for Trent, even continuing to attend political events to keep up appearances but argued with Beast constantly. And I get the whole angst and emotions, and arguing to hide real feelings, but she just didn't work for me.
Her parents were a hoot and would have loved to see more of them. Andi and Trixie were great friends and always had Jane's back… when she wasn't pushing them away. Trent could have suffered more for my tastes, but OMG! Too bad, Terry! Cry me a river!
Readers of MC and contemporary romance will Jane and Beast's story, and watching MCs do what MCs do.
Title: Respectable Riot
Series: Riot MC Series
Author: Karen Renee
She has it all, but she still has nothing.
Married to a local politician, Jane Ramos-Palmer won't put her dreams aside for her husband's any longer. Overhearing her husband being blackmailed, Janie realizes nothing in her life is as it seems. She's willing to ditch all she has, so she can gain everything she ever wanted. Fighting an ugly divorce, meeting and falling for Beast couldn't happen at a worse time for Janie. Escaping her oppressive husband is her top priority, which means her infatuation with a biker must wait.
His world was wrenched cruelly away from him. David "Beast" Huntley's trust has been violated, and being twice shy means he's determined not to get involved with another woman. At least not seriously, and not any time soon. But Janie provokes something in him. His attraction to her gnaws at him, even though she's mired in an ugly divorce with a sketchy politician. Staying away from her is in his best interest and his club's.
When the president of rival MC blindsides and assaults Janie, Beast's inner-beast is awakened. He cannot fight his attraction for her, no matter how wrong it might be.
#BlogTour "Respectable Riot" by Karen Renee
"Beast and Janie had a bit of a rocky start, but I couldn't stop reading because I HAD to find out where they went next." ~Jenn the Readaholic
"I absolutely love Respectable Riot! The characters were gripping, and I was captivated by the storyline." ~Behind Closed Doors Book Review
"… a slow burn well written MC book." ~World of Books 65
When we finally pulled off at a gas station, I swung off the bike, grateful as all hell to stretch my legs. Beast felt my eyes on him, if the expectant look on his face was any indication. I waited for him to join me on the sidewalk.
"You got somethin' on your mind, Country Club?"
With a lopsided grin, I nodded. "First and foremost—"
He pulled me flush with his hard torso. "There's a 'first and foremost'. God. Gonna have to brace for this."
"Fine. Do what you have to, but I feel compelled to let you know, on behalf of all the drivers you cut off, split lanes on, or passed on the shoulder, you drive like a colossal asshole."
I thought he'd be pissed, but his twinkling eyes lit with a smile. Then he swatted my jeans-clad ass. Hard. His voice sounded on the verge of laughter. "What else you got?"
I wasn't pleased about the swat to my ass, but I pressed onward. "Secondly, don't let me hurt your ego or anything, but believe it or not, you're not as important as you seem to think you are. I mean we're not in that big of a hurry."
His hand left my ass, and cupped my jaw. "There's someone very important on my bike, babe, and it ain't me."
Well! That damn sure took the wind out of my sails. Luckily, I rallied. "I'm flattered you think that, but seriously–"
"Rule number one, no bein' serious on this trip."
"You can't be–" It was on the tip of my tongue to say serious, and he knew it.
"Probably the only thing I mean business about. Gotta get you outta your head. Not right you can't sleep through the night, and I don't like it."
"That was 'cause of you," I blurted.
"Say that again?" he demanded.
"Well, uh, I mean, I hate the idea of a guest sleeping on my couch."
"Woman, that couch probably cost more than any bed I've owned. For a couch, it was more comfortable than my bed at the compound."
I crossed my arms. "I should have been on it, not you."
That odd look from this morning came back. "I'm in your bed, you're in it with me."
"You are not to be believed," I muttered.
"I saw you with that woman at Liar's."
His face hardened. "You mean Steph?"
I nodded because I didn't trust my voice not to betray me.
"She's an employee, Janie. Yak invited her to that thing. Followed her onto Liar's street. Could tell she wasn't sure which house would be his, so I rode next to her."
"I see," I murmured.
"So do I," he grinned. "You were jealous."
Karen Renee is the author of the Riot MC Series. She has wanted to be a writer from a very early age, and she's finally bringing that dream to life. She has worked in advertising, banking, and local television media research. She is a proud wife and mother, and a Jacksonville native. When she's not at the soccer field or cooking, you can find her at her local library, the grocery store, in her car jamming out to some tunes, or hibernating while she writes and/or reads books.
#BookBlitz "Cubbyhole Kid" by C.E. Joseph
January 8, 2020 January 8, 2020 ~ Felicia Denise	~ 1 Comment
Teen / YA Biography, Memoirs
Publisher: Page Publishing
Cubbyhole Kid is a heartrending true story of dysfunction and abuse in a California family in mid-1960s.
It tells the harrowing survival story of a young four-year-old boy as he recounts his days being raised in a strict Irish Catholic family while expressing his gratitude and love for two incredible women that saved his life—his protective fourteen-year-old sister, his godmother, and his beautiful, religious mother. Together, along with his other siblings, his brothers, they painfully navigated their abusive, alcoholic, ex-military father through the mid-1960s, Los Angeles. While dealing with a severe childhood anxiety, suicidal depression, physical and learning disabilities at such a young age, the boy traveled inside the cubbyhole, a small, two-by-four middle section of the family station wagon, unexpectedly experiencing his World War II veteran father's life-threatening road rage.
With the fear of death always looming, the boy witnessed his father's all too familiar, unpredictable violence, explosive temperament, and heavy drinking during our country's escalating involvement in the Vietnam War, the hippie cultural movement, riots in the streets, and arguably the heyday of rock-and-roll music.
The story describes the boy's fond memories and relationship with his older sister, who bravely kept him shielded from their father's harsh punishments and became like a second mother to him. While he experienced the beauty of life outside the home during his sister's "coming-of-age" teenage years, along with her friends who were part of the youth cultural shift that seemingly took place overnight. The nightly demonstration of violence and abuse, coupled with his father's unwillingness to accept the generational changes taking place with society's youth, and his mother's unexpected illness, would seem too much and test the young boy's faith.
C. E. Joseph is a first-time author who grew up in Los Angeles and is currently married and resides in Louisiana.
Publisher's Website
Promo Link
#ReleaseBlitz "A Drummer in Red" by Gordon Saunders
YA Historical Fiction
Published Date: 1-8-20
Publisher: INtense Publications LLC
Lewis Elliot and his mother, Stella, are forced to flee their Baltimore home for the modest farm of their cousins in Gloucester County, Virginia. They arrive just as the feared Lord Cornwallis and the hated Colonel Banastre Carleton take up residence in Gloucester Point and across the York River in Yorktown. The war heats up as Cornwallis fortifies Yorktown and Carleton begins foraging raids in Gloucester County.
Then, while Lewis and his cousins, Lloyd and Tetty, are off to Gloucester Courthouse to try to sell enough tobacco to provide for the family, Carleton raids the farm and Stella receives a life-threatening injury.
Through battle, betrayal, unexpected alliances, and, apparently, the Hand ofGod, Lewis and his cousins and friends take a role in the events leading to Cornwallis's surrender on October 19, 1781, after the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.
Publisher Links
UBL
Growing up in Boston, and living in four countries in Europe over 25 years, gave Dr. Saunders a desire to know and share the history that's shaped the world we live in today.
#KindleCountdown "At Daddy's Hands: Courage Knows No Age" by Jacob Paul Patchen
January 8, 2020 ~ Felicia Denise	~ Leave a comment
"… a riveting fictional story exploring the dark subject of child incestuous abuse that plagues families at all levels of society." –Authors Reading
In public, Jim Handler is a well-respected, small-town hero, and homicide detective who solved the case of the Will's Creek Massacre. But at home, in the shadows, Jim's childhood demons come alive to feast upon his family in the form of sexual, physical, and mental abuse.
But his three teenage children have had enough. They have devised a plan for redemption.
Empowered by the legal system's lack of accountability, a judge who offers a quiet and meager plea deal to save face, Jim feels enabled to do whatever he wants to his family. With no one to keep Jim in check, this cycle of sexual and physical abuse is rampant. It is up to Nikki, Tyler, and Ally to end the evil that is devouring the Handler family.
99c Thru January 10TH! (Reg. $5.99)