Cover Reveal & Excerpt: A Crown of Bitter Orange by Laura Florand

I'm excited to introduce the newest of Laura Florand's Vie en Roses installment: A Crown of Bitter Orange, because I adore anything Ms. Florand writes! She provided a tantilizing excerpt. So far this series has been wonderful and she has a whole new set of covers for the rest of the books, too.  

FRIENDS BECOME LOVERS IN LAURA FLORAND’S CROWN OF BITTER ORANGE

Book 3 – La Vie en Roses – on sale February 2016

“Silky and addictive.” – RT Book Reviews

Laura Florand, bestselling author of The Chocolate Kiss, combines lush description, smart dialogue, provocative sensuality, and the perfume of love itself in A Crown of Bitter Orange, an irresistibly lush novel that is an ode to the scents and pleasures of the south of France and the beauty of falling in love.

A CROWN OF BITTER ORANGE

by Laura Florand

February 2017 / Ebook & Trade Paperback / Original / Fiction

$5.99 ebook / 978-1-943168-12-5/ $14.99 trade / 978-1-943168-13-2

Purchase links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google

About the book:

Childhood friends. Tristan Rosier might have asked Malorie Monsard to marry him when he was five years old, but things had only gone downhill from there. She’d spent the rest of their lives ignoring him, abandoning him, and destroying his perfumes. Now she was back, to wreak who knew what havoc on his life.

Lifelong enemies. Tristan might choose to dismiss the generations-long enmity between their two families, but Malorie didn’t have that privilege. Like all the other privileges wealthy, gorgeous Tristan took for granted that she couldn’t. But if she was going to restore her family company to glory, she might just need his help.

Or the perfect match? They’d known each other all their lives. Could these childhood friends and lifelong enemies ever uncross their stars and find happily ever after?

 Excerpt:

Well, look at that. Prince Charming. Malorie should have known she’d stumble over him the instant she set foot back in his kingdom. The man was the bane of her existence even when she was halfway around the world.

She put her hands on her hips and looked down at him, so peacefully dozing out in the open that he hadn’t even stirred at the sound of her feet in the great white pebbles by the river.

Tristan Rosier asleep looked exactly how Malorie had always imagined. Gorgeous. Insouciant. Not vulnerable in the least, except to being over-kissed by the sun. A wicked little smile curving his mouth as if that sun was a woman and he was quite used to this kind of treatment.

Shirtless and completely ripped, the definition of his muscles visible even relaxed in sleep. He’d probably just come down from that beautiful limestone cliff face rising on the other side of the gorge and his muscles were still pumped from it. One hand held a half-eaten apple, the other a small white paperback—Giono’s Hussard sur le toit—and they had both slumped to his torso when he dozed off. In full sun.

She sighed. It would serve Tristan right to have his nose peeling for a week, but then forty years from now, if he got skin cancer, it would be all her fault, and the last thing a Monsard needed was more lives on her conscience.

Plus, knowing Tristan, a peeling nose would probably improve his ability to flirt with hot actresses, not weaken it—he always managed flips like that. And his ability to flirt with hot actresses was already freaking annoying.

Fine. She dipped her hands in the milky green river, high from the recently melted snow in the peaks, limestone giving it that beautiful color. She carried the water back across the round white pebbles, tightened herself and double-checked her buttons to make sure her clothes weren’t going to melt off as soon as he winked at her, and then tossed the icy water over his bare torso.

Muscles flicked like a cat’s—powerful, lean, surging awake—and he opened his eyes, blinking sleepily at her as if she was all shadow in too much light. “Malorie Monsard,” he said, with a sensual, lazy pleasure, as if he’d just woken up on a Sunday morning and was quite happy to see that she was the woman draped in his bathrobe bringing him coffee in the hopes he would ask her to stay.

She had to dive fast into irony to protect herself, as she always did with him.

“You make a good Sleeping Beauty, Tristan.” She used the masculine beau au bois dormant. “Or should I say Snow White?” A nod to the half-eaten apple resting against his washboard abs.

Tristan sat up, blinking, his eyes clearing. “Malorie Monsard.” His voice flattened. He shifted to sit on the rock against which his head had been resting, cushioned by his backpack. “Trust you to replace the kiss in the story with ice water on a man’s skin.”

Yeah. Tristan had been as friendly to her as to any other female on the planet when they were in high school, but when they met again in New York, it had not gone well. For him.

Supple, expressive eyebrows that could lilt up subtly in amusement, invite a woman in with laughter, tease her wickedly, did what they always did when she was around. They drew together. “Malorie,” he said for the third time, looking around them at the limestone cliffs and the rushing spring river as if finally processing it. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Books #1 & #2:

 

PRAISE FOR LAURA FLORAND’S NOVELS:

“Chocolate, Paris, and a Greek god for a hero; this delectable confection has it all!” – Library Journal Starred Review

“(Florand) captures the nature of love, its fierce, soul-warming necessity, in a way that will make you as happy as the finest bonbon could.” – Eloisa James, The Barnes & Noble Review, a Best Book of 2013 selection

“Florand outdoes herself with this exquisite confection… painstakingly crafted and decadent as the sweets it portrays, leaving the reader longing for just one little taste.” – Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“Adorable, charming, whimsical.” – Smexy Books

“Florand serves up a mouth-watering tale of slow-burning passion and combustible consummation that’s as perfectly crafted as the hero’s surprisingly complex confections and as silky and addictive as the heroine’s dark chocolat chaud.”– RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars, TOP PICK!, RT Seal of Excellence, RT Reviewers Choice nomination Best Book of 2013

“A delectable summer bonbon.” – NPR Books

“This is one of the cleverest, most persuasive enemies-to-lovers stories I’ve read in a long time.” – Dear Author, RECOMMENDED READ

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura Florand burst on the contemporary romance scene in 2012 with her award-winning Amour et Chocolat series. Since then, her books have appeared in ten languages, been named among the Best Books of the Year by Library Journal, RT Book Reviews, and Barnes & Noble, received the RT Seal of Excellence and starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and been recommended by NPR, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. In 2015, NPR gave her the enormous honor of naming her Chocolate Kiss to its list of the Top 100 Romances of all time.

For more information, please see her website: www.lauraflorand.com.  

Review: Love You to Death by Caroline Mitchell

Love You to Death (Detective Ruby Preston #1) by Caroline Mitchell
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: November 13th 2016
My rating: 4 stars 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

 

Twenty years ago you were forced to give your daughter up. Now she's back.Or is she?

Women who've had to give up children for adoption are being killed. A knock at their front door begins a nightmare from which they will never wake up.

East London Detective Ruby Preston and her team must hunt down a disturbed individual before someone else is taken. But when bodies start turning up, staged in perfect, domestic scenes, it carries the echo of a memory in Ruby's mind. The tinkling of a music box. A mother and child reunion...

Then just as Ruby thinks they've made a breakthrough, she receives a sinister email, and the case takes a terrifying personal twist.

Can Ruby catch the killer before they strike again? Or will her troubled past catch up with her first?

Love You to Death is a serial killer thriller packed with twists. If you like Karin Slaughter, Angela Marsons and Val MacDermid, discover Caroline Mitchell's new series today - at a special launch price.

My Thoughts:

Detective Sergeant Ruby Preston is the kind of detective you’d want on your side, a woman who yearns for justice and tries to do the right thing, even if her methods aren’t always by the book.  Unfortunately, the love of her life, Nathan Crosby, is on the opposite side of the law and they have a very tangled past and current relationship. I have high hopes for their future, but I’m not sure how things will work out given their circumstances.  There were many POV’s throughout the story, the main one being Ruby of course, but I appreciated getting Nathan’s thoughts as it added another layer on their relationship, making me root for their romance even more than I would’ve without it.

Ruby is currently working on a case where women who previously gave up a child for adoption are being brutally murdered.  It’s clear, from having the POV of the killer, the person they’re looking for is truly disturbed!

Love You To Death had me creeped out and eager for this deranged killer to be caught! My guesses at the killer’s identity were completely wrong, but I do think that was partly because the author didn’t let us in on some of Ruby’s ongoing observations. If I have any complaints I think that would be it. I enjoy a good crime procedural, and this one set in London brought me back to the days I was addicted to the Brit series Prime Suspect, however, I found Ruby far more likable than Helen Mirran’s character.  I’m looking forward to picking up the next installment, eager to see how Ruby’s complicated personal life plays out and for her next case!

Connect with Caroline Mitchell:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Review: Kulti by Mariana Zapata

Kulti by Mariana Zapata 
Publication Date: March 20th 2015. 
My rating: 5 stars. 

“Trust me, I’ve wanted to punch you in the face a time or five.” When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to. It didn’t take a week for twenty-seven-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she’d seen in the international soccer icon—why she’d ever had his posters on her wall, or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies. Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man that hadn’t known she’d existed. So she isn’t prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team’s season: a quiet, reclusive, shadow of the explosive, passionate man he’d once been. Nothing could have prepared her for the man she got to know. Or the murderous urges he brought out in her. “Sal, please don’t make me visit you in jail. Orange isn’t your color.” This was going to be the longest season of her life.

I was a huge fan of Zapata’s The Wall of Winnipeg and me when I read it a few months ago, she worked the hate to love trope to well and created such a great and unbelievable relationship between the characters, that when Kulti properly hit my radar a few weeks ago, I couldn’t wait to read it. It was a mammoth 570 pages long, so I was looking forward to slowly savouring this book. But of course this didn’t happen; I managed to avoid all of my family for two days just so I could devour this epic book. 

Sal is a fantastic soccer player; she’d wanted to be a football ever since watching her idol Kulti make a name for himself. Things are going well for Sal, so she never expected that Reiner Kulti would become one of her coaches. Sal’s sure she’s over her crush, but she really didn’t expect such a tough time with him. At first he seems nothing like the guy she grew up adoring, he’s aloof and doesn’t pay a bit of attention to the team he’s meant to be working with and then when he treats Sal’s father the way he does, she’s had enough, who the heck does Kulti think he is? 

To be honest I was super intrigued by Kulti, why would such a big football legend come to coach the Houston Pipers? No one’s heard from him since he retired two years ago, but now he’s going to have such a pivotal role in Sal’s next season. Even though Kulti gave an earlier impression of being an aloof, egoistical guy, that didn’t want anything to do with anyone on the team and just seemed stuck in his own world, I really couldn’t wait to get to know the guy more. As soon as I found out he was German though, I was a goner, (Irish or German men are my biggest downfall, and I can’t even form a coherent sentence when they start talking). Also I knew there had to be more to this closed off guy, and Zapata really let us get to know him in the best possible way. The relationship between Sal and Kulti was such a slow burn one, but done so well, I loved the slow build up of Kulti slowly allowing us to get to know his character, my gosh I was a complete sucker in the first few pages, but as the story progressed I absolutely fell in love with Kulti. Where did the caring, protective guy emerge from? I wanted to give the big guy a hug or even a kiss! What Zapata also worked well on was the age gap between Kulti and Sal, there was a 13 year age difference and with Kulti being Sal’s idol for a long time, this story could have really fallen apart. But Zapata truly made the relationship between Kulti and Sal a believable one, so much that when the age gap was bought up a few times later on, it didn’t seem like a big deal to me at all. Both Kulti and Sal were mature individuals who were happy with who they were and knew what they wanted from their lives. On top of that the slow build up of the chemistry between them was something I loved watching. Their interactions were ones I extremely looked forward to, as they had me laughing out loud, swooning and at times making me want to punch someone. It really did take a long time for both to realise each other’s feelings for one another, it was apparent to me as a reader that something so wonderful could come out of them being together, but with the position Kulti was in (as Sal’s coach) and with Sal not expecting anything in return, I could accept why it took so long for both of them to get their acts together. 

The brilliant romance aside, Zapata also worked really well on another aspect I love in real life; sports. There are only a handful of books that I’ve read which have featured sport as a central theme and has actually worked well for me. Zapata in my eyes did a great job with the focus on the sport aspect, there was so much always going on, training, making sure they made the team, and going as far as they could as a team. Zapata was not only able to bring the Pipers story to the forefront, but dealt with other underlying issues a sports person would have to deal with really well; competitiveness, bitchiness within a team and how difficult it can be to keep your private life private. With so much going a non sports fan would still be able to enjoy this book. 

I also enjoyed how family played a central part to this book, Sal’s family were supportive of what she was doing in their own ways, but Sal’s dad was one of my favourites. He was always there for Sal whenever she needed him and couldn’t be more of a proud father. I also loved how he was always around Kulti, being a fan of him since the very beginning; it was funny seeing his inner-fan come out in full force. 

Overall Kulti was an absolutely fantastic read; it’s one of those underrated books in my eyes that everyone needs to read. The build up of the romance is one of the best ones I have seen in a long time and the characters ones that you can’t help but fall for. I really can’t recommend this book enough!

Waiting on Wednesday: The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm eagerly waiting on...

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares 
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: April 25th 2017. 

Summer for Sasha and Ray means the sprawling old house on Long Island. Since they were children, they’ve shared almost everything—reading the same books, running down the same sandy footpaths to the beach, eating peaches from the same market, laughing around the same sun-soaked dining table. Even sleeping in the same bed, on the very same worn cotton sheets. But they’ve never met. Sasha’s dad was once married to Ray’s mom, and together they had three daughters: Emma, the perfectionist; Mattie, the beauty; and Quinn, the favorite. But the marriage crumbled and the bitterness lingered. Now there are two new families—and neither one will give up the beach house that holds the memories, happy and sad, of summers past. The choices we make come back to haunt us; the effect on our destinies ripples out of our control…or does it? This summer, the lives of Sasha, Ray, and their siblings intersect in ways none of them ever dreamed, in a novel about family relationships, keeping secrets, and most of all, love.

The last book I read by Ann Brashares was My Name is Memory and it was a book I absolutely loved (I'm probably the only one amongst my friends that did), so I'm thoroughly excited to be getting a contemporary read from her. Also I'm a huge fan of Summer reads set away at Beach Houses, it makes me long to have my own, one that I can go to and hide away at over the Summer. I also do love my books that deal with family relationships well and with any hint of a romance I'm completely sold. I think The Whole Thing Together will have everything I love in a book and I will eagerly be anticipating its release! Also how pretty is that cover? The subtle, natural covers I always find myself gravitating towards. 

What are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Monthly Recap: November

Hi everyone, I'm so glad its finally December, we have our Christmas tree up and I only have a few more Christmas presents to shop for and I just have two weeks of work left and then the Christmas break to look forward to. I've really been feeling the workload lately, I've actually eased back from the gym too and taken a fitbit break. But with Christmas around the corner, I can imagine things getting busy again. Christmas is probably one of the holidays where our family goes all out, we probably do more baking than we do at Vaisakhi or Diwali, so if you don't hear from me around Christmas it'll most likely be because I'm in a food coma!

What I've been up to.

Jasprit:

November was my birthday month, so of course it involved lots of eating with family and friends, I got some great gifts from Allie and Rashika, <3 these ladies and giftcards so I can buy more books!

(You can see more of my photos on my Instagram profile here)

Allie and I went on another food binge, I was all prepared for all the food, well I thought I was prepared, I did quite well at the first few places, but then when we hit the Mae Deli I was a goner! I also had the best hot chocolate at Sourced Market, it was a Dark Rich flavour by Hans Sloane, I'm not typically a dark chocolate fan, but this one was my absolute favourite! And London was of course looking super pretty with the Christmas decorations out in full force! 

I also got to meet up with the lovely Keertana, we both started blogging around the same time, and it feels like we've been great friends ever since, so I was so excited about meeting her in real life. We went and ate at a Michelin star restaurant, visited a few bookstores and ended the day at Laduree with Chocolate Chaud (hot chocolate) and dessert. 

 

Reading

Jasprit:

Number of books read: 20! I haven't read this many books since January and now I'm only 9 books from meeting my goal.

Best read of last month: 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 

  

I read four 5 star reads last month, and I honestly can't choose between them and they all affected me differently on an emotional level. The Opportunist and Thief just crushed my poor little heart, but the romance was done so well! November 9 I actually ended up reading on November 9 (what are the chances), my train was delayed on my way back from meeting Allie, so I got through quite a chunk of it, and normally books by Hoover don't work for me, but I ended up loving the heck out of this one. And Kulti, my gosh this had such wickedly slow burn romance and the main love interest definitely made it to my top ten fictional crushes of all time. 

Fictional crush of the month: Don't make me choose! This has to be such a close call between Caleb from Tarryn Fisher's Love Me with Lies series and Reiner Kulti from Kulti (I'm a complete sucker for a German, hence I'm holding Kulti in such high regards!). But Caleb seriously despite some of the messed up things that he did and had to go through, his love for Olivia was one of the best ones. I need a Caleb in my life! 

 Books I'm looking forward to reading next month. 

(Click on Book for Goodreads link). 


Jasprit:

I got the first three books in the Beautiful Bastard series for a really good deal this week, the reviews have been a mixed for the first book, but I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it. I also received my first book for Christmas The Hating Game! I wanted to buy this book ages ago, but held back for as long as possible, but I can't wait to get stuck in. 

How was your November?