by Jasmyn | Jun 25, 2019 | Readers, Romance
Title: All the Wrong Places
Author: Randi Perrin
Genre: Contemporary Romance
American-born, Australian-raised Rachel Kennedy was born to be an actress–all the way down to her drama queen ways. But when a bad day leaves her life and her dream in ruins, she’s not sure what to do next. Her silver spoon-upbringing never prepared her for that.
With a bank account at nothing and an inability to pull off a convincing accent for casting directors, Rachel’s about to give up on everything. Not on her best friend’s watch. Lily is there to help her every step of the way–if the definition of help involves convincing her to take drastic measures, each one blowing up more than the one that came before.
Once Lily shoves Rachel into the let’s-get-drunk-and-screw-a-stranger phase, she winds up tangled in the arms of Christian Whitmore, a cop with a sinful smile, sexy stubble, and impeccable timing. He’s there to pick her up when she falls and to take her out for fish and chips at her favourite place.
But then again, so is his identical twin brother, Kevin. Double. Trouble.
Stuck at a major crossroads in her life, can Rachel ever find happiness again, or is she just looking in all the wrong places?
Introducing Rachel Kennedy: Today’s Community Theatre Actress, Tomorrow’s Star
I’m Lily May and I’m here with the hottest thing in this hemisphere, Ms. Rachel Kennedy. Let’s get to know our up-and-coming star with a little banter. She’s got excellent fashion sense, a hot car, and perfect pitch.
LM: Would you like to tell us who you are?
RK: You just told everybody who I am.
LM: *eye roll*
RK: *big, cheesy grin* I’m Rachel Kennedy.
LM: And you are…
RK: An actress.
LM: And…
RK:
LM: *sighs heavily* And American. You are American.
RK: *blushing* Yes, I’m American. Baseball is boring, though, and I don’t like apple pie.
LM: What brought you here to Aus?
RK: You know the answer to these questions.
LM: *sweeping gesture toward the audience* But they don’t. Talk to the people, Rach. Your people. Your audience.
RK: My dad is Australian, so after my mum died, he uprooted my entire life and decided to move back to his homeland.
LM: Have you always been an actress?
RK: Yes. My mum was an actress and I knew I wanted to be one too, follow in her shoes.
LM: Are her shoes as fancy as your five-inch Louboutins?
RK: We had more than enough money, but I don’t really remember her wearing designer shoes. She was more about flowers than shoes—we always had fresh flowers around. Those are my lucky audition shoes, don’t knock them.
LM: Knock them? Hell, I’d like to steal them.
RK: Stick your too-big foot in them and you’re dead.
LM: American, actress, hot—who is lucky enough to call themselves your best mate?
RK: *wraps an arm around LM’s neck* Why, that would be you. Duh.
LM: Do you see a conflict of interest in my being your best friend and conducting this interview?
RK: As if a conflict of interest has ever slowed you down before. I’ve seen you do way worse.
LM: You’ve been an accomplice to way worse.
RK: Shhhhh. Don’t go spilling my skeletons before I’m famous.
LM: Get ahead of them. Admit them. Go on, tell us what you do for a living. *nudges RK in the ribs*
RK: I’m a pole dancer, just like you, only I keep my knickers on.
LM: My knickers stay on, thank you very much. Everything else, well, that all depends on how big the notes are.
RK: Let’s get this straight right now, before she keeps going. I teach pole aerobics at the gym. Lily’s the stripper. Not me. I will not take off my clothes for money, no matter how desperate I get.
LM: You’ve clearly never been desperate enough.
RK: Let’s keep it that way. Desperation, like the color orange, doesn’t look good on me.
LM: Orange? There are a whole lot of colors that don’t go with that fiery, red hair.
RK: *checks the time on her phone* Can we wrap this up?
LM: Do you have somewhere more pressing to be?
RK: No, not really, but you’re boring me.
LM: Okay, okay … lightning round. What’s your dream role?
RK: Evita.
LM: Who is your girl crush?
RK: You, of course.
LM: Boy crush?
RK: My boyfriend, Mark. Right?
LM: You keep telling yourself that. He’s a douche.
RK: I love it when you have my back like that.
LM: Someday you’ll come crying to me and I’m just going to say, “I told you so.”
RK: Never. Not gonna happen. No need. We’re perfectly happy together.
LM: There you have it folks, a truly shallow interview with our next musical theatre superstar, the ever sweet and quite delusional, Rachel Kennedy. She is going places, you guys, so be sure to catch her at the community theatre here in Brisbane while you still can, before she leaves us to return to her birthplace to take her rightful place on Broadway. Goodnight folks!
Want to know all of Rachel’s story? Did Mark finally get his head screwed on straight and propose? Did she ever become desperate enough to strip? Pick up a copy of All the Wrong Places, out now at your favourite online retailer
About Randi Perrin
English may be Randi’s first language, but she’s the most fluent in sarcasm, and it shows in her writing. She is known for creating snarky, realistic characters—badass heroines who can hold their own and flawed, yet lovable heroes. Like Randi, her characters run on caffeine and swear words.
Her characters are often built around dichotomy, much like Randi herself. Although she is the least romantic person in the world, she writes romance. She also refuses to pick a lane on the romance highway, sometimes writing contemporary, other times paranormal, but always smokin’ hot.
She is the author of the Earthbound Angels paranormal romance series, several contemporary romance novellas including Anticipating Temptation and Mi Amor, and a gay romance novella entitled Wreck You. She has also had several short stories published in anthologies. Her next full-length novel, a romantic comedy entitled All the Wrong Places, will be out in Summer 2019.
by Jasmyn | Jun 19, 2019 | Book Reviews, Readers, Romance
Lady Scandal finds herself wedded to Lord Randolph after losing a bet. An interesting start to the story, and if you’ve read the first book in Wendy LaCapra’s Furies series (which I highly recommend), then this doesn’t seem all that unusual for the group of women who run the gaming parties.
But that really isn’t the truly scandalous start of the book. It started when Sophia (Lady Scandal) found out that Lord Randolph was more than she thought. He wasn’t just someone to satisfy an inch and wrap around her finger. He was trained under her father – a father she hated – as a ruthless political spy. And now Sophia is convinced he’s using her.
And maybe he is? I can totally see where Sophia is coming from, but Lord Randolph is far more than anything she really expects, and there are a few things she will end up teaching him and he will teach her.
This book isn’t just a romp through historical romance. It has one heck of a suspense storyline that kept me on the edge of my seat. There were a few places that I feel like things were glossed over just to keep the veil around who the bad guy really is in place, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It seemed unnecessarily convoluted because of it. Kasai – Kasai sounds like a horrible person – and the fact that he can cast such a shadow over our couple without actually making an appearance for a very long time, just shows how much his specter alone can influence and manipulate.
I really really enjoyed their time at the Quaker farm. Elizabeth was an odd breath of fresh air and honesty, and her way of life and way of putting things into perspective left an impression on both Sophia and Randolph that I think will last into their future.
In the end, we have just as many loose ties as we did at the beginning – just different ones. As one part of the Fury’s lives seems to wrap up – something else blows wide open. Looks like I’ll need to read the third book in the series to get the final scoop on everything.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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Title: Lady Scandal: The Furies (#2)
Author: Wendy LaCapra
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romantic Suspense
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He had everything under control, until she proved him wrong…
London, 1784
Sophia Baneham has lived in the poison of her dead father’s shadow for longer than she cares to admit. Now she exists outside of polite society’s influence, holding gambling parties for London’s most dangerous men. When a man walks into one of her soirees, a compelling mix of charisma and icy control, he offers the lady of sin a wager she can’t refuse…
Lord Randolph is a spy in the service of His Majesty, but he’s given an oath to protect the daughter of his mentor. Even as his gamble of marriage starts to spiral out of control and his passions ignite, Randolph is determined that he’ll handle things his way…
But when danger closes in, Randolph won’t just have to protect Sophia from an intended killer. He’ll have to protect her from himself…
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by Jasmyn | Jun 17, 2019 | Book Reviews, Readers, Romance
No Turning Back was an incredibly emotional and heart-pounding journey. I stayed up late and put everything else aside because I just had to finish it and see what happened.
To start things off, Livvy is already dealing with some serious trauma that is affecting her ability to perform. We get a feel for what happened, but don’t really find out the full details of the situation until later. To try and get her mojo back by singing in front of a smaller audience, she joins a church outreach group as part of the choir. But their outreach isn’t what she expected. It’s in San Quentin prison, and while she does decide to go (or we wouldn’t have a story), it’s reluctantly.
You can feel the tension building this whole time, and we know what’s going to happen. But when it does, and the riot breaks out, it still floored me. The reactions, the danger, the help coming from surprising places. Livvy finds herself running with the help of an inmate that is trying to protect her. But she has caught the eye of a very bad man – like one of the worst I’ve read about, and he is determined to hunt her down. Not only that, but Livvy is separated from her group and in a sea of men that are mostly out for whatever they can get their hands on.
One of the things I loved the most about this book was the characters’ faith. It wasn’t perfect, but it was incredibly real. When things hit the fan, there was doubt, there was prayer, there was bargaining with God to do something – anything – to save their friends. And faith also brought help from some pretty surprising places. It was incredibly powerful.
The prison itself was detailed beautifully and without this living, breathing backdrop, the story wouldn’t have worked. The place seemed to have a life of its own and lived by rules that seemed foreign to me. The culture is different, the politics are different, the people (guards and prisoners) are different. Katie Vorreiter brought the place and the people to life for me.
This book is one that will sit with me for a while in all the best ways. I keep revisiting passages and thinking about everything that happened. It has been the highlight of the year so far.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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Title: No Turning Back
Author: Katie Vorreiter
Genre: Christian Fiction, Romantic Suspense
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Following a stalking incident, Livvy Fischer’s life has become derailed. Having sung for audiences since she was a child, the classically trained opera soprano is now terrified to sing publicly. Stuck in a dead-end job, she musters the courage to audition for Opera San Jose. Though she starts strong, the audition is a disaster. She decides to begin with a smaller goal—she’ll try singing at her church. Partly due to a mix-up, partly to her crush on the young pastor leading the outreach, Livvy joins a worship team bound for the chapel at San Quentin. When a riot breaks out, she is separated from her pastor and the rest of her church group, sheltered by a Christian inmate. Though the plan is to keep hidden and ride out the storm, Livvy becomes the obsession of a serial killer. Livvy must rely upon God, find her own courage, and trust a small cadre of protectors as she flees the hunter, escapes burning buildings, and hatches schemes to get herself and the others rescued. Yet, through all of the uncertainty and danger, the biggest surprise Livvy encounters is her feelings for her inmate rescuer.
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