🔖 REVIEW BLITZ 🔖 Fight From The Heart by L.B. Dunbar

Fight From The Heart by L.B. Dunbar 

Release Date: November 5th 2020

Series: Heart Collection #4

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

When a snowstorm forces two working-friends together in this small town, one night might blossom into something more than either ever expected.

Pam Carter loves all things bright and beautiful, but as manager of the local gardening center and moonlighting as a personal assistant, life isn’t always blooming lilacs. Especially when she has a crush on the one man she shouldn’t...the ruggedly handsome, horror writer she assists. His demons haunt more places than the page, but she doesn’t scare easily.

Jacob Vincent loves all things dark, especially his home - a mansion in the woods. His Elk Lake City retreat brings inspiration but also temptation in the form of his curvy, quiet, and hardworking assistant. She’s fun to flirt with but he knows his limits. Love doesn’t exist within his black heart, but could he be persuaded to turn the page for a new adventure?

When a shadowed heart clashes with blooming desire, love fights to be set free.

Author note: An author in the woods, his feisty assistant and a snowstorm cause this office romance to melt ice in this small town.

**Previously published as Fragrance Free - now with new content.

Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, Amazon CA

My Review:

Not having read other books by author before, I didn’t know what to expect before reading Fight From The Heart. Needless to say this second-chance-forbidden-office-romance book had me hooked from beginning to end. L.B. Dunbar delivers an emotional and steamy romance that you won’t want to miss. 

In the story we get to meet, thirty-six-year old Pam Carter, who works at a flower shop and is personal assistant to a famous fiction writer, Jacob Vincent. She loves what she does, but after working for Jacob for over two years now, Pam has developed a huge crush on her boss. They spend a lot of time together, yet what makes things difficult is seeing him with another women that is not her. Jacob’s girlfriend is young and beautiful, which makes Pan wonder if Jacob would ever see her differently than just being assistant. It would take a turn of events to bring Pan and Jacob closer than ever before. But just when she is about to be with the men of her dreams, she starts to doubt if she’ll be good enough for him or if she can trust again, after being hurt in the past. She’ll have to decide if pursuing a relationship with Jacob is worth it or not.

As a famous fiction writer, Jacob Vincent is constantly working and having Pam with him makes his life so much better. What Pam doesn’t know is that Jacob has had feelings for her ever since she saved his life way before he hired her to be his assistant. She became his Lilac/Angel and he is going to do anything in his power to make her his once and for all. But even he has demons that have haunted him for so long, ones that could end up putting their future at risk. Jacob will have to fight for Pam before it’s too late.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, it was emotional and romantic. LB. Dunbar did a great job developing the characters and making their story relatable. Jacob will steal your heart, he is sweet and caring towards Pam that made me swoon over their romantic moments together. Pam is a strong character, but trust doesn’t come easily for her as she has been hurt in the past. This leads to her constantly doubting herself when it comes to how Jacob sees her. On the other hand, Jacob has his own past to overcome so they both lean on each other in order to have a future together. They go through ups and downs, but in the end we are left with a twist in the story that I was not expecting and made me like the book so much more. All in all if you are looking for a second-chance-romance story than I would highly recommend checking out Fight From The Heart, I cannot wait to read the next book in the series. :)

**I received an advanced copy from the publisher**

My Rating:

Meet L.B. Dunbar:

I’ve been accused of having an over-active imagination. To my benefit, this imagination has created over twenty novels, including the creation of a small-town world (Sensations Collection), rock star mayhem (Legendary Rock Star series), MMA chaos (Paradise Stories), rom-com for the over forty (The Sex Education of M.E.), and a suspenseful island for redemption (The Island Duet). My alter ego, elda lore, creates magical romance through mythological retellings (Modern Descendants). My life revolves around a deep love of reading about fairy tales, medieval knights, regency debauchery, and strong alpha males. I love a deep belly laugh, a strong hug, and an occasional margarita. My other loves include being mother to four grown children and wife to the one and only.

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🌟 BOOK BLITZ 🌟 Then He Happened by Claudia Burgoa {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Then He Happened by Claudia Burgoa

Release Date: May 6th 2019

Pages: 265

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Jason is a cynical rich playboy.
He doesn’t take life seriously,
He doesn’t believe in settling down.

Eileen’s thirtieth birthday is almost here.
But as always she’s her parent’s afterthought.
Her family is too busy planning a shotgun wedding for her older sister—and she has to help.
It’s just another year where she’s overlooked.
But the best man is smoking hot and actually notices her and makes her feel special.

Jason doesn’t believe in commitment, but Eileen intrigues him.

She’s not the kind of girl he usually hooks up with.

She doesn’t even fall for his charm.
He’s made it his task to convince her that he’s not the shallow man she thinks he is.
But can Jason give up his playboy lifestyle to become what Eileen needs?

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{EXCERPT}

It’s a perfect day to take one last trip to Steamboat before the season closes.

But where am I?

Racing from Boulder to Colorado Springs to look at a wedding venue for my cousin. Marek fucking owes me.

When I heard they would extend the ski season this year, I was so excited. But how well that worked out. Saturdays are supposed to be fun days.

I don’t ask for much. I just need a place, a plan, a beautiful companion, and a bottle of liquor. See? Straight forward, nice and easy. That keeps me satiated for an entire weekend. It really doesn’t take much to keep me happy and satisfied.

What’s abso-fucking-lutely not satisfying, is touring the grounds of the Broadmoor to scout the perfect place for a shotgun wedding.

“So what’s wrong with Vegas again?” I suggest, half joking.

Eileen shrugs. “Nothing. It’s a great town, really weird. Lots of movies take place there. I don’t know why people hate on it so much.”

“But for a shotgun wedding or maybe eloping?” I clarify. “My assistant can make the reservations. I’ll get a plane. We’ll be there before six. There are plenty of venues. We could probably pick one on the spot.”

She laughs. Like seriously laughs for about a minute like I just said the funniest, most amazing joke in the history of jokes.

When she finally sobers up, she asks with that curious voice, “Did you run that idea by Charlie already?”

I rub the back of my neck sheepishly. “No.”

“Well if you do, I want to be right there. I’ll have my camera ready.”

I shoot her an unimpressed frown. “I’m not joking.”

“Me neither.” She shakes her head, laughing once again. “She’ll try to kill you right on the spot. That’s worth taping.”

“Oh come on, it’s a great idea,” I insist.

“You’re talking about my sister,” she says, waving her journal in my face. “She thinks the only wedding worth having is a wedding that’s as glamorous as a royal affair.”

“We could make Vegas glamorous,” I grumble.

“Mom wouldn’t like it either. What about the guests? Would you fly all of them, pay for the accommodations and their expenses?”

Well, I can’t argue with that. I shrug. She smiles and looks back at the horizon.

“I think either here or the Mountain View Terrace,” I say because I’m done exploring the grounds.

“What do you think?”

She hums. “I think the Mountain View Terrace would be perfect at sunset. Especially if we take this place up on that discount for doing Friday instead of Saturday.”

That sounds reasonable. “Okay, but will her royal obnoxiousness, Princess Charlie agree to that?”

Eileen snorts. “As long as it looks amazing on her Instagram account, I’m sure she’ll agree to that.”

She seems so sure of herself. But with all the bullshit we’ve been through and all the crap her sister’s put her through, I don’t want us to fuck this up.

“But is this the place?” I ask earnestly.

She looks around for a bit. Her eyes comb over every inch of this place so meticulously.

“What do you think?” I ask while she studies the landscape and compares it with the pictures.

She stands on the middle of the gazebo looks left right and then toward the mountains.

“Does it make you want to say I do?” she asks curiously.

I shake my head. “There’s nothing that would make me stand up in front of a bunch of people and say I do.” Again, I don’t say.

“So a smaller setting?” She doesn’t even look at me as she talks. She’s admiring the mountain view. “This isn’t too big. They said up to a hundred and thirty guests. We don’t have to invite everyone to the ceremony. We’ll take whatever they have for the reception.”

It’s still too many people, I think.

She turns back to me, as if reading my fucking mind. “You’re being weirdly quiet. Still deciding about your ideal wedding?”

Instead of responding, I ask a question of my own. “Does this place make you want to tie your life to another person?”

She squints, craning her neck to look up at me. For a few beats she remains quiet.

“I don’t know if this is the place,” she says. “First I’d need the right guy. I’m not getting married to just anyone.”

“So you’re still looking for him?”

She turns to look at me and flashes this smile she has on her face so fucking much. There’s such tenderness in those eyes. That face just soothes me.

“I’m too busy to get a haircut let alone date someone who isn't worth my time. But you know, I wouldn’t marry someone just because I got pregnant.”

“Like your sister,” I say what she’s trying to avoid.

She shrugs.

“I look at her and Marek and I’m just not feeling it” she says, taking the scene in one more time before walking toward me. “Wouldn’t you want to organize the most important day of your life?”

“I think they're busy trying to score a house,” I say.

“When I find a guy worth shit, I don’t want to be worried about a wedding or where we’re going to live.”

The air is thin here. It goes well with the crisp afternoon air. Eileen is cool, but calloused when it comes to love. Wonder if it's a family trait and she's just a gold digger.

So I prod a little. “What if he can only afford a studio, doesn’t have a car or can afford to pay for the wedding of your dreams?”

“Maybe that’s why 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce,” she says. “People get married all the time for all the wrong reasons. You do it because you’ve come to realize that someone cares enough to see your bullshit and love you anyway. If you’re too concerned about her looks, her job...where she lives...you're wasting your time.”

She sighs. “I don’t think that many weddings are about love. They're a convoluted status symbol. If you want it so badly, just elope.”

My eyebrows shoot up. Well fuck, I wasn't expecting that. “What if you can afford the wedding?”

She gives me an impish smile. “Then, I’ll think about inviting a few people and do something small. Ten, fifteen people from each side of the family. You seem like the kind of guy that would let her do everything pay for it. You like to please people.”

“And why the fuck would I do that?”

“Middle child, we have the tendency to make everyone happy, right?”

“Maybe I would help her organize it.” I let my gaze wander around, anywhere but her direction. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

That last statement doesn’t sit well. We don’t know each other, and she just assumes—not that she’s wrong about it.

“Come on,” she says inviting me to stand right by the gazebo. “Let’s try this out.”

“Try it?”

“Duh, we need to test drive this place.” She extends her hand wiggling her fingers as she calls me to her. “What do you think?”

I take her hand. It's warm. Her grip soft yet firm. She feels so familiar. I don’t know what it is that I’m waiting for as I stand right in front of her. She squeezes my hand, kinda like she's saying, “chill the fuck out.”

Reluctantly, I take a deep breath. This place smells like pine with hints of hazelnut and cherry? Warm and bright, just like her. Her eyes stare at me curiously. Then, she nudges me to stare at the horizon again.

“Could you?” she whispers with a chuckle. “Doesn’t it make you want to fall stupidly in love?”

The sky goes on forever. Just like her laugh.

I swallow thickly, terrified of how she made my heart beat fast.

“Yeah,” I mumble, holding her tight because I don’t want to fall.

AUTHOR BIO:

Claudia is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. She lives in Colorado, working for a small IT. She has three children and manages a chaotic household of two confused dogs, and a wonderful husband who shares her love of all things geek. To survive she works continually to find purpose for the voices flitting through her head, plus she consumes high quantities of chocolate to keep the last threads of sanity intact.

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🌟 BOOK BLITZ 🌟 The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Release Date: October 31st 2020 by Paper & Silver, Inc.

Series: The Librarian's Vampire Assistant #5

Pages: 300

Genres: Adult, Mystery, Romance

From New York Times Bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes the FINAL vampire-mystery-slash-romance-slash-adventure about a librarian and her trusty vampire assistant, The Librarian’s Vampire Assistant, Book 5.

(Yes, yes. Still a standalone. Yippy! You don’t have to go back and read all four books. But don’t ya kinda wanna?)

NEVER HIRE A HANDSOME VAMPIRE!

MIRIAM MURPHY loves being a librarian. It’s all she’s ever wanted—to eat, breathe, and sleep books. But when she hired Michael, a handsome college student, she had no idea he was a four-hundred-year-old vampire and that inviting him into her life would result in her becoming one too. But not before he knocked her up and broke her heart.

Now Miriam is a single mother, all alone in a new world with a new vampire body. And someone’s trying to kill her. Who? Why? She has no real enemies.

If only Michael would help. After all, he’s the vampire king now. And this is one mystery she can’t solve on her own.

NEVER FALL FOR A LIBRARIAN!

MICHAEL VANDERHORST knows he’s changed. He can no longer love or laugh or enjoy hot peppers like he used to. But being an unfeeling, ruthless vampire is what it takes to rule the deadliest bloodsuckers on the planet. It’s the only way to keep humankind safe.

Problem is, his enemies know the librarian and his daughter are special to him. They are his to protect, even if he’s incapable of feeling love.

But when danger comes knocking at Miriam’s library door, he must choose between solving the biggest mystery of his existence and the woman he swore to protect.

What’s a vampire king to do?

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{EXCERPT}

My parents started this library and filled it with millions of dollars of books. Three floors. Open in the middle—same as our house—overlooking the main floor. When I wasn’t in school or training to be a Keeper, I was here, losing myself in books. I think I always knew I wanted to be a librarian, but it just took a while to work up the courage to tell my family. Of course, when I did, they acted like I’d told them I wanted to be a porn star or bank robber.

To this day, I don’t regret my choice, but I do regret how my parents were murdered before I could convince them that choosing another path in life didn’t mean I hated them. They died thinking the worst of me, and for that, I don’t think I’ll ever feel closure.

I pull into the parking lot to the side of my library and immediately go for my crossbow. The big one this time. Bertha.

There are four black SUVs in the lot and two parked out front on the busy street at the meters. I know it isn’t Nice, which is why I grab the chocolate-tipped arrow. I make them myself with pure cocoa powder and a flour paste so the tip hardens just enough to penetrate the skin. Vampire skin.

Chocolate is a narcotic for us. Give us enough, and it’ll kill, whereas a small dose has the same effect as alcohol. I’ve yet to sample any since being turned because I’ve been alone with Stella and must be on my guard. Mommy can’t get a chocolate chip cookie buzz until she finds a ninja sitter.

I take my crossbow and exit my Hummer. I might be a librarian, but when it comes to defending my child, I’m a one-woman army. Ready to kick fangs or asses. The ill-fitting, disheveled clothes I wear—below-the-knee skirts, moth-eaten sweaters, and granny glasses—are merely a disguise. Today I have on a wrinkled white blouse, plain tan pants, and a black cardigan that’s all stretched out. People see me and think I couldn’t harm a fly or fight my way out of a paper bag. All part of my Keeper upbringing. Unfortunately, my natural clumsiness is genuine, and so is my lack of love for violence. I can fight, and fight well. It’s just not something that comes naturally or that I enjoy. Even when I was Nice’s prisoner, fear always held me back. And he knew just how to use it to keep me tethered to his side, reading bad poetry, helping him shop online for ruffled shirts, telling him how much I admired his wiry body and long black locks.

The man is a monster.

At least I wasn’t mistreated sexually. Mr. Nice has a rule about not sleeping with humans (apparently they’re too fragile for his bedroom games), but he kept Stella from me. Those are years lost with my daughter, and I’ll never get them back. For that, he’ll pay.

How?

I’m not sure yet, but it’s coming. His day of reckoning for separating me from Michael and then my child, for driving Michael to become a cold-hearted vampire, and for turning me is coming. I love to read, and I’ve always believed a story is only as good as the bad guy. But in real life? The only good bad guy is a dead bad guy. This librarian is coming for you, Nice.

Now for this guy!

Bertha in hand, I pull on the front door of my library. My eyes meet his, and my heart starts hammering against my rib cage, like it’s calling out to him in longing. The sensation jars me and, in some way, shames me. I know he can hear it. Just like I can hear the lack of beating inside his chest. He couldn’t care less about seeing me. He feels nothing.

“What do you want, Michael?” I growl, keeping my weapon pointed at the ground. I know his guards are all around us, waiting to pounce.

“What do I want?” He points to his broad chest, and I try not to notice how good his tall, lean, muscular frame looks in his tailored black suit. Michael Vanderhorst was born over four hundred years ago, but if you saw him walking down the street today, you’d wonder where the Armani shoot was. And I’m not talking runway. I’m talking Christmastime cologne commercial. You know, the ripped, oiled-down guy with deep olive skin in a tight white Speedo, diving into a pristine turquoise ocean. Yeah. That Armani.

Despite being a vampire, Michael is everything hard and male and seductive, with a face that never ages. One look into those dark eyes, and you’re lost forever.

“Yes,” I repeat, “what do you want?”

“You summoned me,” he says in that deep, authoritative voice that doesn’t fit his youthful appearance. It was the one thing that first tipped me off about him not being human. No twenty-year-old I’ve ever met has a voice that can make my toes tingle.

I raise my crossbow and point it at his groin.

“What are you doing?” he growls with those sexy lips.

“I know you have at least a dozen guards surrounding me. Consider it my insurance.”

Michael unfolds his arms. “Mir-librarian-woman, you sent five of my men home in a shoebox. I hardly think you are the one at risk.”

I frown. “What are you talking about?” And why is he calling me Mir-librarian-woman?

His dark eyes narrow in puzzlement. “Please tell me it was you who summoned me.”

I blink, catching on to the situation.

Someone pretending to be me asked him to come here.

I hear a click somewhere in the room. Oh crap!

Before I can scream “run,” Michael charges faster than my new vampire eyes can register. 

AUTHOR BIO:

MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF is a New York Times bestselling author who’s sold over one million books around the world. Although she obtained her MBA and worked for more than fifteen years in the corporate world, she believes that it’s never too late to come out of the romance closet and follow your dreams.

Mimi lives with her Latin lover hubby, two pirates-in-training (their boys), and their three spunky dragons (really, just very tiny dogs with big attitudes) Snowy, Mini, and Mack, in the vampire-unfriendly state of Arizona.

She hopes to make you laugh when you need it most and continues to pray daily that leather pants will make a big comeback for men.

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