Review ~ WAIT FOR IT by M. O'Keefe

Review ~ BURN DOWN THE NIGHT by M. O'Keefe

Feature Spotlight ~ YOU HAD ME AT CHRISTMAS: A Holiday Anthology

Release Day Blitz & Giveaway ~ BETWEEN THE SHEETS by Molly O'Keefe

Review ~ WILD CHILD by Molly O'Keefe

Perfect for readers of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson, this sizzling romance tells the story of a sexy small-town mayor and a notorious “bad girl,” who discover that home really is where the heart is.

Monica Appleby is a woman with a reputation. Once she was America’s teenage “Wild Child,” with her own reality TV show. Now she’s a successful author coming home to Bishop, Arkansas, to pen the juicy follow-up to her tell-all autobiography. Problem is, the hottest man in town wants her gone. Mayor Jackson Davies is trying to convince a cookie giant to move its headquarters to his crumbling community, and Monica’s presence is just too . . . unwholesome for business. But the desire in his eyes sends a very different message: Stay, at least for a while.

Jackson needs this cookie deal to go through. His town is dying and this may be its last shot. Monica is a distraction proving too sweet, too inviting—and completely beyond his control. With every kiss he can taste her loneliness, her regrets, and her longing. Soon their uncontrollable attraction is causing all kinds of drama. But when two lost hearts take a surprise detour onto the bumpy road of unexpected love, it can only lead someplace wonderful.

Welcome to Bishop, Arkansas with Molly O'Keefe's WILD CHILD & Giveaway

Review: Crazy Thing Called Love by Molly O'Keefe

Dallas TV morning show host Madelyn Cornish is poised, perfect, and unflappable, from her glossy smile to her sleek professionalism.  No one knows that her iron will guards a shattered heart and memories of a man she’s determined to lock out.  Until that man shows up at a morning meeting like a bad dream: Billy Wilkins, sexy hockey superstar in a tailspin—still skating, still fighting, and still her ex-husband.

Now the producers want this poster child for bad behavior to undergo an on-air makeover, and Billy, who has nothing to lose, agrees to the project.  It’s his only chance to get near Maddy again, and to fight for the right things this time around.  He believes in the fire in Maddy’s whiskey eyes and the passion that ignites the air between them.  This bad-boy heartbreaker wants a last shot to be redeemed by the only thing that matters: Maddy’s love.

All I Want for Christmas is You by Molly O'Keefe

Maddy Baumgarten and Billy Wilkins are spontaneous, in love, and prepared to elope the day after Christmas--that is if Maddy's family doesn't throw a wrench in their plans.  After all, Maddy's barely out of high school and Billy's a notorious bad boy.  Maddy doesn't care about Billy's rough past--all she cares about is living in the here and now.  But after Maddy's mother stops speaking to her in protest, and a Christmas Eve heart-to-heart with her father leaves her with butterflies, Maddy starts to get cold feet.  She loves Billy, but is she taking this big step too soon?

Can't Hurry Love by Molly O'Keefe

From award-winning author Molly O'Keefe comes a wonderfully written contemporary romance about second chances at life and at love.

Victoria Baker, the penniless widow of a disgraced financier, is ready to stand up, be counted, and make a new life for herself and her beloved son in Texas.  She's taking over Crooked Creek ranch, her birthright, and turning it into something special.  All that stands in her way is Eli Turnbull, a rugged, too-handsome cowboy who wants the land just as badly.

If Victoria want a fight, Eli will give her one.  He's devoted his life to Crooked Creek, and he's not about to let some pampered city girl--even as brave and beautiful as Victoria--turn it into some silly spa.  But Victoria's and Eli's burning anger and frustration only fuel heat of another kind; uncontrollable passion.  And soon they each realize that the person standing in their way is the one they can never do without.

READ YOUR WRITES REVIEW

Can’t Hurry Love is the second book in the Crooked Creek Series.  Even though this book is part of a series, I don’t feel it is necessary for you to read the first book in order to understand what’s happening.

I love reading series because I tend to get invested in the characters and series give you the opportunity to revisit them in other books.  Which leads me to what I DON’T like about Can’t Hurry Love.  In the first book, Can’t Buy Me Love, the main characters were Luc Baker and Tara Jean Sweet.  I liked those characters and I was looking forward to revisiting them a little bit in this book.  They were barely mentioned.

Can’t Hurry Love focuses on the love story of Victoria Baker Schulman and Eli Turnbull, who at one point in their lives were childhood friends.

Victoria is the daughter of Lyle Baker, the deceased former owner of the Crooked Creek Ranch, and his mistress.  Victoria was born a year after her brother Luc, whose mother is Celeste and was married to Lyle at the time.  Victoria was always treated as a burden and someone unimportant her entire life.  While he was alive, her father, Lyle was emotionally and verbally abusive.  Victoria met and married Joel Schulman a New York financier.  Joel was involved in a Ponzi scheme and stole a lot of money from people, including people who were supposed to be their friends.  Instead of facing the legal consequences of his actions, he committed suicide and left a big mess for Victoria to have to deal with.  Victoria was left in financial ruin and moved in with her brother Luc and her son Jacob.  After Lyle died, Victoria decided that the ranch was as good a place as any to make a home for herself and her son.

Eli Turnbull is the Foreman of the Crooked Creek Ranch.  Several decades earlier, the Crooked Creek Ranch actually belonged to Eli’s family.  Over the course of time, the Turnbull family sold the land to the Baker family in order to pay off various debts.  When Lyle Baker passed away, Eli thought Lyle would leave some of the land to him as he promised.  Being the true butt that he was, Lyle only left Eli the Angus herd, with the stipulation that half of the proceeds from the sale was to go back to the Baker family.

Eli asked Victoria to sell him back some of the land.  Victoria refused and in turn wanted Eli to teach her how to run a ranch.  Eli’s first reaction to her was to sell all of the herd, except for fifty head.  With not much of a ranch left to run and with the realization that she needed to generate monthly income, Victoria comes up with the idea of transforming the Crooked Creek Ranch into the Crooked Creek Resort and Spa.  With help of Celeste and Ruby, the cook/housekeeper, Victoria set the wheels in motion to have her dream come true.

Even though this is the second book in the series, it is probably my favorite of the two.  If you read my review of Can’t Buy Me Love, then you know that I did not care for Victoria at all.  With Can’t Hurry Love, I came to love and respect Victoria for the woman that she became.  While reading the first two books, I could not for the life of me understand why Celeste, Lyle’s ex-wife, was still at the ranch.  This book gives a little of Celeste’s background and made me realize that Celeste and Victoria are alike in some ways.  Celeste has probably always loved Victoria, but had a problem with her, because she was living proof that Lyle cheated on her.  Celeste blames herself for not protecting Victoria from Lyle and Victoria’s own mother like she should have.

I love books where you get to watch the characters grow into the people they should be. Eil’s mother left him with his drunken, abusive father, when he was eight.  Twenty-seven years later, he’s still carrying around the scars of being abandoned and refuses to let anyone get close to him.

What was supposed to be just two adults enjoying each other’s company, slowly but surely turned into something more.  Something neither Eli nor Victoria expected or were looking for.  Both are tortured souls due to bad childhoods, but with the help of each other they are able to overcome all of the negativity in their lives to find the good in themselves and in each other.  I can not think of anyone who deserves to be truly happy, in love, and have a happily ever after more than Victoria and Eli.

I don’t know what kind of journey the next book in the series, Crazy Thing Called Love will take me on, but I’m very much looking forward to reading it.

I received the book from NetGalley, in exchange for my review.

Rating: 4

Can’t Hurry Love can be purchased from Amazon. For other retailers, please visit Molly O’Keefe website.

Can't Buy Me Love by Molly O'Keefe

In Molly O'Keefe's captivating new contemporary romance, a woman with a past and a man without a future struggle to find a place where they belong.

A girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Tara Jean Sweet knows that opportunity will never knock; she'll have to seize it. Elderly Texas rancher Lyle Baker has a dying request: He will give Tara Jean a stake in his leather business in exchange for a little family subterfuge. All Tara Jean has to do is play the part of a gold-digging fiancee to lure Lyle's estranged children home. The mission is soon accomplished.

Now Lyle's gone--and his ridiculously handsome son, Luc, an ice hockey superstar sidelined by injuries, is the new owner of Crooked Creek ranch. He's also Tara Jean's boss. But being so close to sinfully sweet Tara Jean does crazy things to Luc's priorities, like make him want to pry her deepest secrets from those irresistible lips. But when Tara Jean's past demands a dirty showdown, will Luc stay and fight?

READ YOUR WRITES REVIEW

Can’t Buy Me Love is the first book in Molly O’Keefe’s Crooked Creek Series.  The book centers on Tara Jean Sweet and Luc Baker.

The overview describes Tara Jean as being from the wrong side of the tracks. She actually grew up with a single mother in random, less than desirable trailer parks.  Her mother was one of those mothers who cared more about herself and the multiple men coming in and out of her life, than she did her own daughter.  This makes Tara Jean into the woman she is today.

Luc Baker is known as “The Ice Man” on the hockey stage. Since he was a teen, hockey has been his thing.  It is what defines who he is. Sidelined with a head injury, which could be career and life ending, his main goal is to work hard to get back to what he loves, which is hockey.  With his teammates, he’s known as “Grandpa”.  Not because of his age, he’s thirty seven, but because, “It has everything to do with how you worry, about everyone. Whether they want it or not.”

The story starts out with Lyle Baker, Luc’s father and owner of Baker Leather and Crooked Creek Ranch, dying and wanting to see his children before he dies.  Lyle was known to have jerk tendencias and be a little difficult to get along with by everyone.  To his children, Luc and Victoria, he was an abuser.  This is why he and his children are estranged.  I found Victoria to be a pathetic, needy woman.  Because she never stands up for herself or shows any interest in being her own person, Lyle picks on her.  Victoria's story is told in the second book of the series, Can’t Hurry Love.

Tara Jean plays the part of the gold-digging fiancee/dim-witted Barbie doll very well.  But she’s more than that.  Surprisingly, Luc is the one who gives her a chance by getting to know her.  He even tries to make her see that she’s more than what she thinks she is.

As with many romance novels, Luc and Tara Jean do their best to fight the attraction they feel towards one another.  I like this book because you are able to see the characters grow and evolve.  There is also a little unexpected surprise.  I’m not going to call it suspenseful.  But I will say it added a little twist to the story that I wasn’t expecting.

I’m starting to become a big Molly O’Keefe fan.  I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

I received this book through a contest win.

Rating: 4

This book can be purchased from Amazon.  To find the full list, please visit Molly’s website.

Molly O'Keefe's Unexpected Family

Overview

 

Jeremiah Stone: rodeo superstar. Good-time guy. Father of three? That’s one pair of boots Jeremiah never expected to fill. Then his three nephews are orphaned, and his entire life changes. Not only is he now playing parent, he’s also running the family ranch. It’s almost too much for this cowboy.

Until he encounters Lucy Alatore.

He recognizes that look in her eye and knows a steamy fling could make him feel more like himself. But the intense heat between him and Lucy is distracting him from three little boys who need his undivided attention. He’s forced to choose one over the other…unless he can convince Lucy this family isn’t complete without her!

Read Your Writes Review

This is the first book I've ready by Molly O'Keefe, so I didn't know what to expect.

Lucy Alatore is a down and out jewelry designer, who's lost her Los Angeles business because she wanted to make fast money.  Previously, she made a name for herself by making beautiful individually handmade jewelry.  Down on her lucky with no place to go and in need of a much needed break, she and her mother return to their hometown of Wassau, California.

Jeremiah Stone is a former rodeo star.  Not only has this ladies man lost his beloved bull riding career due to a near death experience, he has to take care of his family ranch.  Add to the equation, this confirmed bachelor is now a mother and father to his deceased sister's three young boys.

This story is about love, second chances, and truths that you never knew existed.

Part of me wants to say that the story is slow, but that's not the case.  This isn't your guy meets girl and they fall madly in love and spend the rest of the book doing the dirty deed.  This story builds and pulls at your heartstrings.  You'll wish you could force the characters to get out of their heads and shake them into saying or doing what you know they should do.

While the story is mainly about Lucy and Jeremiah's journey together, you also get another mini love story.  The story of Lucy's mom, Sandra, and Walter, Lucy's father's best friend.

Lucy's sister, Mia, is married to Walter's son, Jack.  Lucy and Mia never really cared for Walter.  Walter is a drunk who lets his wife beat Jack as a child.  Then when Lucy's father, A.J. passed away, Walter allowed his wife to kick A.J.'s family out of their home. 

It's interesting how as kids, we only look at things on the surface.  It is only when we become adults that we allow ourselves to dig deeper into situations and the actual meaning of those situations.

Lucy, Jeremiah, Walter, and the three boys are all lost souls who never realize how much they need each other.  Each help the other to find their way from the darkness and into the light.

This book was given to me by the author, as part of a contest.

Rating:  4

You can find out more about Molly O'Keefe and her other books by visiting her website:  molly-okeefe.com

Purchase through: Amazon