Review: Scars of My Past by DC Renee

My life was one of those teen angst rom-coms where the ugly high school student transforms herself into the beauty queen. Except there was no cute guy helping me along, no series of makeover shots with fun background music, no scene where I walked into the room and all heads turned to look at me while wind blew through my hair. I was the ugly high school student, and I did transform, but it wasn’t all peaches and cream.

Bullied so badly in high school that it ruined my life, I spent my senior year in therapy. It was there that I transformed – not just physically, but mentally as well. I wanted a fresh start and going to college across the country was my ticket to that. It was a whole new world, and things were great …

… and then came the blast from my past.

And he didn’t recognize me. What was a girl to do? Revenge, of course! My plan was to make him fall for me and then break his heart.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong. If only revenge was black and white … too bad a lot of gray was in the mix. But one thing was for sure – I needed a way to heal the scars from my past. I just hoped I could. 

4 stars
Review by Jen Skewes

This is my first book by this author and it will not be my last.  When I first read the blurb I knew this was something that I had to read.  If there is one thing that I love in a book it is a hero and heroine with a past that has left them broken, especially when it is the hero.  This book is one of those stories that will make you feel everything.  The pain, the hurt, the anger and frustration, but also the moments that will make your heart happy.

Gen had a good family life growing up but it was her high school years that caused her to suffer.  Being bullied so bad that you just didn’t want to go on any more.  But Gen survived that part of her past and it now trying to move on.  The past still haunts her, she still has reminders of what it did to her and how bad it affected her, but she is away at college and in a new town and trying to live her life.  She meets Cam, who is this gorgeous boy who seems to be there to save her whenever she needed saving.  But he looks oddly familiar to her.  He reminds her of the boy that tormented her through high school and made her life hell.  But at the same time he is nothing like him.  When she finds out who he really is she sets a plan in motion, to let him know what its like to be hurt.  Time goes on and Gen finds herself torn between the boy that she has become best friends with and the boy that put her through hell.  Can she go on with her plan or will she fall for the boy who she is supposed to hate?

I loved Cam.  He was a really good guy despite who he was in the past.  For a good portion of the book we see the past from Cam’s point of view.  We see what his childhood was like, the pain he went through and why he was that person who made Gen’s life miserable.  But it was seeing all of his past that made me understand so much of who he was.  He really was a sweet and caring person who was trying so hard to move on from his horrible past.  At times I felt so bad for him and my heart just hurt, from his past but also in the present.  The way he loved and cared for Gen just melted my heart. 

I loved Gen but at times she completely frustrated me.  Bullying is never right but I felt like she was so stuck in the past that she was so unwilling to see what was right in front of her in the present.  She was not willing to give it a chance and try to actually understand what happened, try to see what made Cam the kid he as back then. 

This is the story of two broken people who are still tormented from their pasts.  Despite trying to move on they are still living in the past, it is still affecting them today in a way that it makes it so hard to move on.  There is a very slow build up to that moment when the truth comes out.  At times I felt it was a little too slow for me but when it got to that point I was so engrossed in this story that I did not want to put the book down.  Ms. Renee threw a twist in there that I did not see coming and one that made me truly hurt for them.  I loved how everything came together, how the truth came out, the explanations of the past.  My heart broke over and over again from that moment on but Ms. Renee managed to piece it all back together. 

Blog Tour: Steal by Rachel Van Dyken

Steal by Rachel Van Dyken
Release Date: July 3rd

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Steal, the follow-up standalone rockstar romance to the #1 NYT Bestseller Keep…

It's easy to lose yourself in someone you love.

Easier to lose yourself in someone you hate…

I didn't think it could get any worse than having to babysit a bunch of spoiled musicians on set — keeping them out of trouble is a cakewalk compared to seeing my ex every day.

Seaside, Oregon isn't big enough for the both of us.

She hates me.

I loathe her.

The plan was simple — stay the hell away and make sure she gets to set on time.

What I didn't expect was to be faced with our past in front of an audience — and be forced to face it again.

It's torture.

The way she looks at me.

The way I try to look through her.

Words left unsaid.

The lingering aftermath still as powerful as ever.

I feed the chasm between us, for fear that she'll make me feel again — and steal the last shred of heart I have left.

We have everything but each other.

It's not enough.

Not when you've lost love.

And replaced it with the only thing left — hate.

4 stars
Review by Lisa Kane

It's easy to lose yourself in someone you love.
Easier still, to lose yourself in someone you hate.


Rachel Van Dyken can have you laughing so hard you are snorting coffee out of your nose, and then a copy of chapters later your eyes are wet and your stomach is flip flopping all over the place. Steal is like this.

Angelica Greene is down to her last chance to redeem herself and revive her career. Linc's sister (the lead character in Capture) has burnt most of her bridges with her wild behavior. Only Will Sutherland is willing to get her casted in a movie.

Granted, our history was just that-history. 
And I was her last hope. The only guy willing to work with her. 
Her final shot at stardom.

Will is now a successful agent. But he will forever be best known for being part of one of the most famous boy bands. Few bands had the following and sales his band had but a huge division between he and a bad member-Andrew nailed the coffin on the band. Angelica just may have been the hammer.

It's hard to review this book without giving away spoilers, let's just say this is a second chance at love/triangle/love gone wrong/love's redemption kind of book.

"My pride took a hit, every time you took a hit."

The main characters are beautifully flawed, have fallen to the furthest depths of hell and have survived to talk about it. Only they don't really want to talk about the past and secrets are like deep fissures that separate them from each other.

"You made me hate the stars," Will whispered. "They reminded me of your eyes...so clear, so pretty."
He shuddered beneath me. "So I hated them, because I hated you."

Expect to be confused and frustrated and immersed in this story. While there is witty banter, there is profound sadness. Scars are carved on these characters souls and parts of this story are just heartbreaking. Not every character will be redeemed and not all will get their HEA. I'm hoping that one particular anti-hero will be getting his own book. I am a sucker for an underdog!

"Hate. Such a strong word. A word I think you can only truly understand and use when you've loved like we have...and lost. Hate happens when there's loss."

Excerpt:

I blinked up at the white ceiling, willing the tears to dry. Praying they wouldn’t slip free — because once they were loose there was no stopping the onslaught of emotion that would follow, the devastation, the earth-shattering realization that nothing would ever be the same between us. Not if he could help it — and not with me constantly pushing him.

But at least pushing him got me a reaction that proved he wasn’t a complete indifferent sociopath.

I refused to let him get to me.

With a sigh I turned onto my side and stared out the window imagining a different time a different place, where he was by my side — and promised to never leave.

That and the way his hands ran down my skin like he was getting ready to worship me the way he used to.

Only his face hadn’t been filled with wonder — disgust was more like it.

I clung to the anger like a blanket. It was the only way to sleep, the only way I was able to close my eyes and pray the sickness in my chest away.

Anger forced me to focus on doing my job and getting as far away from my past as possible.

Weakness would just make me sad.

It would make me that — weak;

And I knew where that road led.

It led me directly back to all the things that turned me down that road in the first place.

Not being good enough.

Pretty enough.

Funny enough.

Weakness led me to a false sense of strength.

And my number one weakness had always been Will Sutherland.

It was possible — to give so much of your heart and soul to a person that you lost who you were.

I became a different person with him — a person I thought I needed to be in order to compete in our world. A person our world told me I had no choice but to become in order to stay relevant.

I punched my pillow one last time and attempted to sleep.

Two hours later, when sleep still wouldn’t come, I padded my way into the kitchen and made coffee, then laid my head against the couch and thought about the way his lips felt on my ear.

Inches from my neck.

Breaths from my body.

I ached for him in ways I never knew existed.

And I relished in the ache just like I relished in the anger, because at least that meant it had happened, and at least that meant I knew he was a bad choice I wasn’t willing to make again.

A weakness that wouldn’t just hurt me.

But kill me.

Sometime around one in the morning when the clock on the microwave blinked at me with an intensity that started a pulsing headache to form — I stumbled over to the couch and face planted — the last thought in my head was of the Sutherland Sunset — and how it had once been my anchor until it turned into my hell.

What a joke.

What a cruel joke.

“You made coffee.” Will’s smooth voice interrupted what had been a completely dreamless sleep.

I didn’t have the energy to respond with anything other than a grunt.

“Still not a morning person,” he commented. His footsteps might as well be sledgehammers drilling into the wood floor.

“Why?” I croaked.

The walking stopped. Lights flicked on. I shivered and cursed him to Hell as he poked his head over the couch and had the audacity to smile. “Why what?”

My eyes narrowed. “Talking.”

“Why talking?” He took a sip out of the blue mug I’d been drinking out of earlier that morning; he must have reheated the coffee. “Still really eloquent in the morning I see.” Another annoying sip. The terrorist didn’t even offer me any! Just kept loudly sipping while staring at me with a stupid ass grin on his face like it was a joy to be awake at… wait, what time was it?

I jolted to a sitting position, my pounding headache still wasn’t gone, in fact it was worse, probably brought on by Will’s cheerful demeanor and loud walking. “What time is it?”

“You have twenty minutes until you’re expected on set.” His voice was calm behind me, warm. If I closed my eyes I could almost imagine his body was about to wrap around me like a blanket, I’d tuck my feet under my body and rest my head on his shoulder, we’d share a cup of coffee like we used to and watch the news before work.

It took us one date to become inseparable.

Our trailers side by side.

Cohabitating.

Finishing sentences.

Eating off each other’s plates.

Sharing inside jokes.

Not to mention, Will had been my first.

I shivered as his footsteps moved away from me taking his body right along with them.

That was the past.

It needed to stay there.

With a sigh, I shot up to my feet and started making my way back to my room.

I only made it about one foot before Will started cursing.

Panicked, I froze and then turned around. “What’s wrong?”

His eyes narrowed over the rim of the blue cup, “I’m just trying to decide if you’re doing it on purpose.”

“Doing what?” Okay now I was getting annoyed. And the man wouldn’t stop slurping his coffee as though he didn’t know how to sip like a grown up!

He shrugged one of his shoulders. “Wearing no clothes.”

Read Today!

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Meet the Author:

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!

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Cover Reveal: Sick Fux by Tillie Cole

When Ellis Earnshaw and Heathan James met as children, they couldn’t have been more different. Ellis was loud and beautiful – all blond hair, bright laughs and smiles. Heathan was dark and brooding, and obsessed with watching things die.

The pair forged an unlikely friendship, unique and strange. Until they were ripped apart by the sick cruelty of others, separated for years, both locked in a perpetual hell.

Eleven years later, Heathan is back for his girl. Back from a place from which he thought there was no return. Back to seek revenge on those who wronged them.

Time has made Heathan’s soul darker, polluted with hatred and the thirst for blood.

Time has made Ellis a shell of her former self, a little girl lost in the vastness of her pain.

As Heathan pulls Ellis out of her mental prison, reviving the essence of who she once was, down the rabbit hole they will go.

With malice in their hearts and vengeance in their veins, they will seek out the ones who hurt and destroyed them.

One at a time.

Each one more deadly than the last.

Tick Tock.

Dark Contemporary Romance. Contains explicit sexual situations, violence, disturbingly sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language and very mature topics. Recommended for ages 18 and over.

Tillie Cole hails from a small town in the North-East of England. She grew up on a farm with her English mother, Scottish father and older sister and a multitude of rescue animals. As soon as she could, Tillie left her rural roots for the bright lights of the big city.

After graduating from Newcastle University with a BA Hons in Religious Studies, Tillie followed her Professional Rugby player husband around the world for a decade, becoming a teacher in between and thoroughly enjoyed teaching High School students Social Studies before putting pen to paper, and finishing her first novel.

Tillie has now settled in Austin, Texas, where she is finally able to sit down and write, throwing herself into fantasy worlds and the fabulous minds of her characters.

Tillie is both an independent and traditionally published author, and writes many genres including: Contemporary Romance, Dark Romance, Young Adult and New Adult novels.

When she is not writing, Tillie enjoys nothing more than curling up on her couch watching movies, drinking far too much coffee, while convincing herself that she really doesn’t need that extra square of chocolate.

Author Links

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Review: Dr ERotic by Max Monroe

Blurb:

Dr. Erotic. 

That’s what they’ve decided to call me, Scott Shepard, the head of St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Department. 

Just thinking about it makes me smile. 

As the new face of the reality docuseries, The Doctor Is In, I plan to take his power and recognition right to the streets of New York City and into the pants of willing women. 

Well, that was my plan. 

Until her—feisty, beautiful, and addictively sexy Harlow Paige. 

A gossip columnist that just loves writing about yours truly, she’s everything I thought I never wanted and then some. 

She drives me crazy.

Problem is, she doesn’t want to be anything when it comes to me—not friends, not lovers, not even adversaries.    

God, I love a good challenge.

Get ready, Harlow. Love is contagious.

4.5 Stars
Review by Lisa Kane

Scott Shepard is one of the doctors featured on the reality show, The Doctor is In. While the first subject of the series, Will Cummings (his story was Dr.OBscene) has had a time of it, Scott has toned down his every day habits, keeping his hook ups on the down low so they don't blow up and ruin his image as the cool, confidant, immensely talented head of St. Luke's Hospital's ER department. He's not about to give the gossip lovers anything to talk about.

Frances "Harlow" Paige works for Gossip, a magazine that exposes the juicy side of the rich and famous in New York city. Her job as a columnist for the magazine may not be exactly what she wants but it pays the bills. Harlow's a fun girl-loves men, loves sex. It's a sexual encounter gone bad that brings her to the ER to get a gash on her forehead examined.

"But what if it needs pressure?"
"I'll apply some."
"Promise?" she asked, big mischievous eyes turning doey right before my own. Wow. That's talent.

One magazine article later and the two are connected. Dr ERotic is full of sexy times, hysterical banter, and some gut wrenching angst. Both Harlow and Scott are loveable and do their best to prove to themselves that they aren't in a relationship; this is just friends and sex. Sure... Ladies, get out those kitchen mitts, cause you're going to need them to hold your E-readers!

Me. Happy. In a relationship. Go figure.

Tour Giveaway LINK: https://goo.gl/Y8pSXV

Tiny Tease:

“Was he the man who was riding when you got injured, Low?” he questioned, and I internally groaned at his ironic choice in words. 

      The man who was riding? Good Lord, that sounded terrible. And a little too close to the actual scenario…

      “No, sir,” Scott answered, and if the strain in his throat was any indication, he was one breath away from losing himself to laughter. “I was, in fact, not doing the riding when your daughter got injured.” 

      My father looked at me. “If he wasn’t the one riding, then how do you two know each other?” 

      Fucking fiddlesticks, I needed everyone to stop saying riding before I fainted from discomfort.

Release Blitz: The Catch by K. Bromberg

After an unexpected twist of fate, All-Star catcher Easton Wylder is left questioning the loyalty of everyone around him.

Even the woman who shares his bed, Scout Dalton.

But if Easton thought being uprooted to the last place he expected was the only challenge life had to throw at him, he was dead wrong.

With an ailing shoulder and his career in limbo, his decision to make an unexpected change leads him to question everything – Scout’s love, family loyalties, and whether he can conquer the one obstacle he’s never been able to overcome. The secret he’s never shared with anyone.

He may be a man pushed to his limits, but he’s hell-bent on proving his worth no matter the cost.

5 Stars

Review by Jen Skewes

I have been waiting for this book.  After the way Ms. Bromberg left us hanging I could not wait to get my hands on this one.  I had to know that Scout and Easton would be ok, that they would make it through any hurdles that life through their way. 

The Catch picks up exactly where the first book let us.  I swear from the moment I started reading my emotions were all over the place.  My heart was pounding as the events in Scout and Easton’s life unfolded, watching as they had to deal with so much regarding their relationship, as well as their career and family.  At times I wondered how they would get though it, if they even could.  But their love is strong and I believed that as long as the two of them were together they could get through anything.

I fell in love with this couple even more in this book.  Eaton Wylder is every bit as amazing as he was in the Player.  He had his ups and downs and moments where his words and actions hurt me just as much as they may have hurt Scout but it was the words and actions that came next that just made me love him even more.  He truly is this loving, sweet, caring man who is faced with so many obstacles in his life.  But he didn’t face them alone and they weren’t just his obstacles. 

Scout and Easton’s journey to find their happiness together had many bumps along the way but they navigated those bumps together and that is what I loved.  They had their moments where yes you were so unsure if they could get through it.  There were moments where I feared for what would happen.  I felt every bit of their pain and hurt as well as their love and passion.  Because when these two were together everything about them was passionate and real.  They needed each other they loved each other, in ways that I think neither one of them expected.  Together they were perfect.

Ms. Bromberg certainly hit this one out of the ballpark.  There were twists and turns that you did no expect.  There were moments where I wanted to cry and get angry with these characters.  And then I was laughing and completely swooning.  There was no denying the connection you felt with these characters.  I loved them.  I loved going through this emotional journey with them.  Once again Ms. Bromberg’s writing is flawless and every part of this story was perfect, from beginning to end, I would not have it any other way.  Perfect ending to their story.

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Baseball has never been sexier in an all-new novel by New York Times Bestselling Author, K. Bromberg.

Easton Wylder is baseball royalty. The game is his life. His passion. His everything.

So, when an injury threatens to end Easton’s season early, the team calls in renowned physical therapist, Doc Dalton, to oversee his recovery. Except it’s not Doc who greets Easton for his first session, but rather, his daughter, Scout. She may be feisty, athletic, defiant, and gorgeous, but Easton is left questioning whether she has what it takes to help him.

Scout Dalton’s out to prove a female can handle the pressure of running the physical therapy regimen of an MLB club. And that proof comes in the form of getting phenom Easton Wylder back on the field. But getting him healthy means being hands-on.

And with a man as irresistible as Easton, being hands-on can only lead to one thing, trouble. Because the more she touches him, the more she wants him, and she can’t want him. Not when it’s her job to maintain the club’s best interest, in regards to whether he’s ready to play.

But when sparks fly and fine lines are crossed, can they withstand the heat, or is one of them bound to get burned?

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New York Times Bestselling author K. Bromberg writes contemporary novels that contain a mixture of sweet, emotional, a whole lot of sexy, and a little bit of real. She likes to write strong heroines, and damaged heroes who we love to hate and hate to love.

A mom of three, she plots her novels in between school runs and soccer practices, more often than not with her laptop in tow.

Since publishing her first book in 2013, K. has sold over one million copies of her books and has landed on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists over twenty-five times.

In April, she’ll release The Player, the first in a two-book sports romance series (The Catch, book 2, will be released late June), with many more already outlined and ready to be written.

She loves to hear from her readers so make sure you check her out on social media or sign up for her newsletter to stay up to date on all her latest releases and sales HERE

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