Saturday, January 14, 2017

Next Installment: Books that Wrecked me for other Books 2016 - Sugar Bowl Series by Sawyer Bennett

Now, before you roll your eyes as "of course, she'd have an SB book. She's like a super fan."  Hear me out.

Sawyer Bennett has a few series for different genre types.  You love Sports - Cold Fury Hockey.  You love more HOT and spicy- Wicked Horse.  She even has a well known and very well loved attorney series by yours truly - Legal Affairs. You name it - she's probably got your type.  However, the series that WRECKED me - Sugar Bowl.

ITS NOT THE HOCKEY SERIES.
I KNOW...

The Sugar Bowl gave us her first Suspense/Thriller Romance.  And come hell or all things beloved by fangirls I hope it's not her last. 



I need to be open and transparent.  Sawyer Bennett approached me to beta read the series. Okay, yeah right like I am going to turn that shit down - NOT.  I live in Northern California with a stint of time in the Bay Area.  She asked me to pay particular attention to the locale references. Because if nothing else, Ms. Bennett is known for her dedicated research.  I agreed in a heartbeat. Remember this as you read.  

I love everything about this series. I mean LOOK at those covers up there.  Gorgeous!  And the teasers?  I'm going to share with you some throughout the post that how could you NOT click on these books.  And the story...well, the story is fucking fantastic.  Which is why I am not going to tell you a damn thing about it.  It's something you need to experience and I, for one, am not a spoiler type.  

First up is Sugar Daddy.  It's an introduction to the characters, Beck and Sela. What motivates their actions, what their expectations are... oh and book one ends in a cliffhanger. 




Yeah, so that was fun.  I mean the waiting.  I hope you read that my trademark sarcastic tone. 😏 Because it was agony. 


Now, Sawyer being the wonderful supportive person started a Facebook support group: #SweetRevenge - The Sugar Bowl Series by Sawyer Bennett.  Now, because if you haven't read the books you will because I said. Then go over there to cry and rant because you'll need it.  Really, we are a super fun group and love talking about the series.  Just few short months, we were were put out of our misery.  And me, I 💖 LOVE 💖 this book so much that I did a fan trailer here:



Book two, Sugar Rush, continues Beck and Sela's love affair.  You get more involved with the characters and the elephant in the office that needs to be exterminated.  You cannot help but wonder what is the best course of action for them to proceed. 



So, if you thought book one was fun.  Book two is Disneyland and Disney World all wrapped up in super awesomeness.  I'm lying.  It was pure reader torture and agony.  Why?

IT ENDS ON AN EPIC FUCKING CLIFFHANGER!


This was where the support group became a mutual place of discussion and wishing the author to be likewise in misery. We were all wildly guessing who did what and why.  Once you finish the books and have joined the group, check out for a post from me on October 25th.  Now, you have questions. Hold that thought for a minute.  If you believed that the story couldn't get any better, along comes book three, Sugar Free.



Sugar Free was everything and more.  The story continued with a few more twists and turns before coming to the best epilogue ever written and probably ever will be by a romance writer.  I am like every other super fan that becomes invested in the characters. I want - no that's wrong - I NEED to know how they live happily ever after.  This epilogue was the bomb diggity for every readers HEA in the future need to know.  Okay minor exaggeration that I will touch on in a few paragraphs. But that question that is burning in your brain.  Let me guess:

If you were beta reading, why are you bitching about the cliffhanger? 
BECAUSE IT WAS THE SAME OR WORSE FOR ME



I know. You'd think because I beta read I know what's going to happen so I could create massive havoc with messing with people.  Yes, I did.  However, while you are beta reading you can't skip ahead. See you are going to click on the links to buy this series and binge read.  Where me...I had to wait.  Let me give you an analogy:

You are 6 months old. You love pears. Your mom is feeding you pears. The bowl of pears is on the table out of reach of your high chair.  Mom is busy talking to Dad.  She is not spoon feeding you pears fast enough.  See...waiting SUCKS!  So beta reading...

You have to wait for the author to feed you chapters.  Maybe the character just stepped off the curb while a cab comes barreling down at the end of the last chapter emailed.  Now the author is going to go to the beach and hang with friends.  All the while you are waiting to find out if the character gets hit with the cab.  See...waiting SUCKS!   Now because I suffered, I did enjoy misdirecting people in the Facebook group because I could. And used the power of the group to get what I wanted next. Remember I said the epilogue was almost perfect. 

As you read Sugar Bowl series not only are you swept into the world of Beck and Sela, you become interested and involved with the secondary characters.  And the epilogue gives you closure for these minor players - sort of - not really. No, I got no fucking closure.  So, I rather went on a quest of sorts. I decided that we readers were not going to take that bullshit at the end and need REAL closure.  Dennis' Darlings was formed. 

Check out my blog entry from November 2016.  Notice what I'm wearing especially for Sawyer Bennett. Yes, I am so committed to this cause that I had a shirt made to make a point. 




Now why did this series wreck me for others? 

What is my one word for Sugar Bowl Series:  Captivating.  From page one to 'The End' Sawyer Bennett keeps you gripping your eReader with tension as the story twists and turns.  It is definitely a romance. You WANT - no - You NEED Beck and Sela find a way to be together in the end.  But it is not easy or simple.  And that my fellow book lovers is what makes a fantastic read.  Although you get complete tale, it is a series to pick up and re-read periodically. Ms Bennett took storytelling to another level.  Each time I am deeply immersed and do not want to pause for life in general.  I've not had a series grip me so acutely.  When asked my favorite series, it is this one - EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Sugar Bowl Series is available at all major eRetailers and local bookstores.  The link provided are for Amazon for the complete three books series:

Sugar Bowl Series by Sawyer Bennett

If you'd like links to the other retailers, hop on over to her website where she happily provides them for you:

Sawyer Bennett Bookshop



PS: I'm surprised you didn't ask but I'll let you in on a well known secret.  Yes, my posse and I got our Christmas Wish.  Dennis is coming soonish...



Sunday, January 1, 2017

It's time to be a Rebel! 1st Installment "Books that Wrecked me for other Books" 2016 version - Black Balled/Hard Edit by Andrea Smith and Eva LeNoir


This time of year everyone is doing a ----

"BEST OF"
"FAVORITES"
"VOTE ON"
Yep, me and David we are going to rebel....
 
                    

Here's what I'm going to be doing throughout January is: I am going to share all the reads I had in 2016 that wrecked me for other books.  Now, most people think, "Oh, these are all the ugly cry. Emotionally charged. Tissue wrecker books."

Nope.

These are books that I so enjoyed the shit out of that anything I read after that paled after that.  Not meaning that it was a Nobel Prize for literature.  Oh hell no.  These are books that struck a cord.  A twist in a plot. Characters unexpected. Just special to me.  So in no particular order, first up is:


Now, true confessions of a bookworm.  I purchased this on June 6, 2015.  Come on don't be hating on me. You've seen my TBR - poor books get lost.  Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I one-clicked it after a takeover on one of the many favored book groups.  There it sat.  Until a fellow admin, Janett, on Darlene & Dexter's Book Nook posted about a sale.  I clicked on to purchase and thank goodness for "You already purchased this."  Then I go on to admit in the book group "Ha Ha! I already own it!"  Which then got me the "You've got to be shitting me right now" emoji from Janett.  She then told me under no uncertain terms that during my recovery from surgery I was to "READ THIS BOOK."

I always do what Janett tells me.  She also doesn't read this blog to refute me.

I was recovering from surgery and the previous book I had read required too many brain cells.  Just to let you know that narcotics and thinking don't always work well to then write a coherent review.  I decided to pick this up for my next read. Now, since I couldn't remember what made me click it in the first place, I went to read the reviews on Goodreads.

OH.MY.GOD.  The DRAMA this book produced. 

Hey, I hang with Mr. Bowie so those drama mamas on GR aren't going to scare me. I'm reading it. In a word the story is ----

RI-DICK-U-LOUS

Yes, I'm high on narcotics at the time. Laying in a hospital bed laughing my fool head off.  Seriously, I was going to pee the sheets.  I lay on the buzzer to have the nurse help me but first I burst out, "Wait, let me read you this..."  Yes, this went on until I was discharged.  The hospital staff said I was one of the more entertaining patients in awhile. I owe that all to the characters.  Troy and Larson just couldn't get any cockier or more arrogant but they did.  I went on to gift it to three friends because the gift of laughter is the best medicine.

Then the narcotics wore off. 

Maybe this book isn't as funny as I thought?  Maybe the haters on GR are - gasp - right? 

So I read it a second and third time.

NOPE. I WAS RIGHT AND THEY ARE WRONG.

Okay, yes some of the scenes and actions are just plain over the top.  But really folks, who are we if we can't laugh at ourselves.  This story pokes fun at all things in the literary world where we take ourselves too seriously and think we have power we don't really have over who has the next big hit.  But take away the Depends moments, what is delivered is a story of two people that are vulnerable and afraid to put themselves out there again.  When love and life goes bad, it's hard to put yourself in a place where you want to find that person.  So layer on the cocky over the vulnerable - that's Troy and Larson. 

Then in June I was asked if I'd listen to the audiobook for review. OUCH!! Stop twisting my arm....
No, really are you kidding me ?  Drop whatever I was in the middle of.  Because I missed these two men. Then I moved onto other books until September.  

September - the month all mothers rejoice in the sound of school bus rumblings, a chill in the air, nature puts on a show and authors give you "what happens after the HEA".   Yes, I was giddy with delight that Andrea Smith and Eva LeNoir were giving us more Troy and Larson.  All the books that wrecked me for other books had that same feeling.  I didn't want to give the characters up. I wanted to return to their world again and again to see how they are doing.  Smith and LeNoir gave us that. Best of all - Hard Edit isn't Black Balled all over again.



Now, here's where the story changes and IT SHOULD.  Troy and Larson are still cocky and arrogant as ever.  But it's not the same reasons to bring tension to the story.  It's all about having the one you love in your life and want to gift them everything they always dreamed of.  This is all about the relationship and making it work. Again I didn't want to leave them.  And I've asked the authors to give us more because once you read it you'll realize there is definitely more story here in these two men to tell. 

I've told you how I got there.  Now why did these books wreck me for others? 

My one word for Black Balled is:  original.  It had two equally cocky men - usually only one alpha per story.  It was a battle of wits and testosterone.  A next door neighbor with a penchant for frying pans and exes that put the O in oh-shit.  The story pokes fun at what some of us put on a pedestal - for that, I'm on team Rebel forever.  I loved the authors gave us two follow up novels that were equally original as its predecessor.   I hate a been-there-read-that.  

Oh what was the other story - Guns Blazing. Obviously I'm not waxing on at nauseam about it in this post.  Oh, it was a five star read as you'll read by GR review.  And I want you to read it so I'm including it in my links:

Black Balled and Hard Edit:
 Amazon US: https://goo.gl/W58ab9
 Amazon UK: https://goo.gl/1cxqGU


Guns Blazing:
 Amazon US: https://goo.gl/3FDCpW
 Amazon UK: https://goo.gl/fBj6PK
 Amazon AU:  https://goo.gl/OSFnxL
 Amazon CA: https://goo.gl/5GVXl2