Sam's Book Basket: gina l. maxwell

Thursday, August 14, 2014

REVIEW: Fighting for Irish (Fighting for Love #3) – Gina L. Maxwell

Released: January 13th, 2014

A sexy category romance from Entangled's Brazen imprint...

He'll fight for her life. She'll fight for his love.

Kat MacGregor has forty-eight hours to make good on the debt her ex-boyfriend owes a crime boss. Unfortunately, the measly tips she makes waitressing are barely enough for her to live on, much less cover the twenty-thousand needed to keep her breathing. With time running out, Kat 's forced to accept help from the only man who's ever made her feel fire rather than fear.

When he learns a friend's sister is in trouble, former Boston MMA fighter Aiden "Irish" O'Brien heads to Louisiana to offer himself up as collateral to keep her safe. But to satisfy the debt, he has to do the one thing he swore hed never do again: fight. With more than just money on the line, will Irish have what it takes to not only reclaim the man he once was, but become the man he needs to be for the woman he can't live without?

"And I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you ever again, I swear it."

Fighting for Irish is a story about redemption and forgiveness. Aiden pulls Kat out of her individual hell where she keeps running and provides her with the life that she’s always dreamed of and deserved.

Aiden is the man. I freaking LOVE him!

He’s on a trip to find Kat, who has identified herself as someone else. Kat is hiding from her past, from the men who want to find her and possibly kill her. Aiden was going to change all that for her.

This man is a sexy, SEXY fighter who’s quit the ring a long time ago for specific reasons mentioned in the book (so not gonna spoil it). He’s huge in terms of his body, his heart and also *cough* down there.

“Kitten, you’re going to inflate my ego to dangerous levels with all that talk about me being so big.”

Phew, I’d love to be Kat in that situation.

On the other hand, Kat lives in paranoia every day. She lives in a small town where nobody knows her, avoiding everything connected with her past life, and living in the moment. That is, until her past comes chasing after her.

With Aiden’s help, Kat faces her darkest fears and her biggest problem. With his help, Kat broke free of the chains holding her down.

Although she was frustrating at times with her stubbornness, she was an admirable character.

The only other thing I didn’t like about the book was the fact that this all happened so fast. Like, you blink, and suddenly they’re all ga-ga for each other. More connection please?

MY RATING:

4 APPLES!!!!!

✭ BOOK LINKS ✭

(Click book cover for Goodreads link)

♕ Seducing Cinderella (Fighting for Love #1) ♕

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

♕ Rules of Entanglement (Fighting for Love #2) ♕

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

♕ Fighting for Irish (Fighting for Love #3) ♕

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, Gina L. Maxwell, is a shameless romance addict with no intentions of ever kicking the habit.

Growing up, she dreamed of helping people escape reality with her sublime acting abilities. It wasn’t until college when she realized she had none to speak of, thereby derailing her lifelong plans. Another ten years would pass before she discovered a different means to accomplishing the same dream: writing stories of love and passion for romance addicts just like her.

Thanks to the support of her amazing family, Gina is now the Boss of the world’s first organized romance mafia, the Maxwell Mob, and living her dream of bringing a little romantic fantasy to the world—one steamy novel at a time.

Check her out in these sites:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

✻ ✻ ✻

Monday, August 12, 2013

[Review] Seducing Cinderella - Gina L. Maxwell

Released: July 20th, 2012

Mixed martial arts fighter Reid Andrews's chance to reclaim his title as light heavyweight champ is shattered when he's injured only months before the rematch. To make sure he's healed in time, his trainer sends him to recuperate under a professional's care - Reid's best friend's little sister, all grown up.

Disorganized and bookish Lucie Miller needs some professional help of her own. She'd do anything to catch the eye of a doctor she's crushed on for years, so when Reid offers seduction lessons in exchange for 24/7 conditioning for the biggest fight of his career, Lucie jumps at the chance.

Soon Reid finds himself in the fight of his life . . . winning Lucie's heart before she gives it to someone else.

"Was it possible to physically feel the moment you lost your heart to someone? Because Lucie was fairly sure she'd just lost hers, and the spot where it should have been literally hurt.."

This book actually surprised me. And, well, even though I do get surprised easily, nevertheless, it was definitely still a shocker for me. I honestly didn't think that this book would be that good. I was expecting a book filled with hot, steamy sex and not much of the romance.

But, boy, did Ms. Maxwell prove me the hell wrong.

Lucie and Reid were just so fucking perfect. Although Lucie can be annoying at times, but I'll elaborate on that more later. But the whole story was so simple and easy to read. It was slightly fast-paced but I thought it was pretty okay since I didn't mind the flow of the story. Overall, the book had a fantastic plot with awesome characters and the love to match.

Well, now, let's start of with Lucie. She was initially this really nerdy-ish character who basically didn't really know how to be feminine. She was so conscious of herself, so insecure and vulnerable. The doctor of her dreams wanted to ask her friend out after one meeting! Obviously, this Dr. Dickwad was a jerk since he didn't realize how special Lucie was. He was really into images and shit so yeah, he's an ass.

But when Reid comes along and teaches her how to be this spicy character, man did she change. She bought a whole new set of wardrobe, changed her attitude and slowly began to turnover her outlook on everything in life. I really liked her character because she was a fast learner and she wasn't passive at all. She was actually willing to make an effort to win Dr. Mann's heart. Lucie didn't sit around.

The only thing that pissed me off about her was her insecurity. I mean, maybe yeah, she was really self-conscious and everything but, fuck, she really can't see how amazing and gorgeous she really is. It was kind of depressing seeing her bring herself down and all. I'm just happy that Reid came along ;)

What's sad about Lucie is that she doesn't believe in love.

"That had been the moment she decided to never again trust that love was all a relationship needed to work. She stripped the phrase 'opposites attract' from her vocabulary and vowed to not get involved to anyone who wasn't suitably compatible with her."

I was like, "Wow." She's been hurt before and it sucks. It sucks that that's the reason why she's actually so interested in the doctor. He was "compatible" with her but she didn't want to be a romantic character again. She wanted to rationalize her world and try to have that perfect life with the perfect husband.

And then there's Reid. MY GOD REID ANDREWS. He is so much more than just a fighter, even Lucie observed this.

"You see things differently than most people. There's a very artistic side to you."

That is too adorable. Reid is one of the sweetest guy characters I've ever come across. He really tried for Lucie, and, although sometimes he was such a shitty coward, he always came back to her. Always. He leads this seemingly perfect life as a successful, wealthy fighter but maybe, on the inside, all he wants is to feel the love that he never had.

He's such a lovely man with the greatest talent to work with words. Whenever he says something, I just go: