Fiction

 in Fiction / Fun by | Open »

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Choose Your Adventure.”

He was like nothing she had ever dared to go near before. A large male, standing approximately 6 feet tall, thick muscles beneath bronze skin like that of someone who had spent many hours in the sun working, rich brown hair that looked like he had just woken up, though he worked it well, and eyes that were an unnatural shade of blue, so piercing they felt as if they could see into ones soul. He was the talk of the area down in a sleepy town in Florida.

His personality had all the ladies wrapped around his finger: charming, funny, protective, and a great smile.

Damen Johnson was what ever young girl wanted: absolutely perfect personality and flawless to look at.

Then there was Lauren Bones, 5 foot 4 inches tall, dirty blonde, near brown hair, eyes that were a mixture of sky blue and forest green which seemed to swirl, or so her mother had once whispered to her as she lay in the hospital, the cancer eating away at her system. Lauren was quiet and shy and didn’t like to have people closer to her. Hence the reason why the 23 year old female, fresh out of college with a chiropractic degree, decided to settle in close to a retirees community.

All had been quiet until Damen moved in next door to her in the small bungalow half a year ago. No one his age, approximately 30 years old, had moved in. Everyone was well about 70.

While all the girls went after him, no one really knew anything about him. No one knew his occupation, no one knew where he went during the day, no one knew what happened behind the closed doors of his house. He was extremely secretive but no one questioned it, besides Lauren. She had spent countless hours looking out her window and watching his house, seeing the flicker of light from a computer. It was almost always there during the evening but when she had been outside gardening late one night a few months back, there had been no sounds from the house, so she ruled out video games.

Questions piled up. Questions she wanted answers to. Who the hell was this man who lived next door to her? Why the hell when she was out, even though she never spoke to him, he would always watch her with cold and calculating eyes? She wasn’t used to delayed gratification and 6 months was certainly enough time. It was now time for answers.

Damen was, in crude terms, a contract killer. His target.

Lauren Bones.

Sort of.

Quietly sitting in his living room with the file on her in his lap, he let his eyes roamed over the paperwork.

Name: Lauren Bones
Age: 23 years
Height: 5 foot 4 inches
Occupation: Chiropractor
Employment: Sporadic
Mother: Deceased
Father: Missing

His eyes locked in on that word: missing. Missing my ass he thought to himself. Her father wasn’t missing. He was Ex-FBI and had left his job with some secrets which the government didn’t want him to have. The moment Damen had been called in to eliminate the target, he dropped off radar. Lauren believed him dead in a car crash, or so the FBI had lead her to believe. It was easier that way, because even if he was found, he’d be killed on the spot.

There were no leads to his location and no one knew where he had gone. He was a ghost and disappeared without a trace. The next best thing for Damen was to follow his daughter, see if she knew anything and if the father would someday show up to visit his daughter.

So far, no luck.

There was no indication that Lauren was a threat, but his orders had been strict. Kill her father once he showed his face and if she seemed to know anything, get the info and kill her if necessary.

The fat check he received each month was ridiculous, but he couldn’t complain. His life was getting boring to say the least. Each evening he spent on the computer, searching the Dark Web for any whispers of the father and the secrets that he possessed and may sell for a nice price.

It was monotonous work, but he knew that he didn’t have a choice and did it anyway.

He couldn’t screw up or step out of line. They watched. He knew that They always watched and knew everything. He screwed up, it would be him with a bullet between the eyes. Never get involved with a target or potential target. First rule of his job. The consequences were always deadly.

The next day, Lauren was quietly working in the garden wearing nothing other than some jean shorts and a white shirt, a few specs of mud marring her face. Humming to herself, she was oblivious of the world around her. So it was only fitting that she jumped like 3 feet in the air when she felt a hand tap her shoulder. Her body whipped around and faced whoever was behind her, and she had to crane her head upwards to see her neighbor.

“Hello.” Lauren managed to get out past her thundering heart beats.

“Hey. I just wanted to let you know that you left the hose on.” Damen said, his voice as rich and silky as many of the towns girls gossiped about, their high pitches carrying across the diner when Lauren would stop by to eat in public.

“O-Oh. Thank you.” She managed to stumble out, pushing herself up into standing position and angling herself towards the hose, returning a brief moment later. Damen was still there, just regarding her silently.

“Was there anything else?” She asked him and he just held his position, holding eye contact which almost hurt her due to the piercing blue nature of his eyes.

“That was all.” He responded, putting his hand out to hers, to shake it. She complied, letting her smaller hand be engulfed by his but instead of a shake, he guided her hand towards his face, pressing her knuckles against his lips. A light color brushed against her cheeks, but he turned and walked off without making a comment.

With her heart still thudding, she shakily got back to work and tried to not think of what transpired in less than 5 minutes.

Arriving back at his house, he locked the front door and mentally smacked himself. How stupid could he have been! Sure, he was intrigued by her, but such a bold statement. A low growl passed through his lips as he kicked his shoes off and padded further into the apartment, only to see a flashing box on his computer screen.

Dread filled his stomach as he crossed towards it. Moving the mouse over the ‘open’ button, he clicked and his eyes locked on the sentence before him, his heart freezing in place.

Kill her.

They’d seen.

 

 

 

To Read ASAP For Me!

 in Books / Fiction / Hot Off The Press / Interesting / Young Adult by

It turns out one of my good friends has recently written a novel and to say I was shocked was an understatement. I know many people who love to write, but to actually get to the level where you can publish is a definite achievement and I am honestly so proud of her.

I haven’t read the book yet but I just found it on Amazon.com and I will be reading it really soon as it looks like exactly what I like to read.

The book is titled The Unknown by G.A. Viva! (Click to link to go to Amazon.)

I will definitely be reading it ASAP and getting a review out there. She has absolutely inspired me to try to get some of my writings published when I can finish them off, and I definitely will be trying to now.

So go check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll be reading it as soon as possible so look out for the review!

Lover Eternal: The Second Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward

 in Adult / Book Reviews / Books / Fiction / Series by

Summary

“Within the brotherhood, Rhage is the vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the best fighter, the quickest to act on his impulses, and the most voracious lover—for inside him burns a ferocious curse cast by the Scribe Virgin. Possessed by this dark side, Rhage fears the times when his inner dragon is unleashed, making him a danger to everyone around him.

Mary Luce, a survivor of many hardships, is unwittingly thrown into the vampire world and reliant on Rhage’s protection. With a life-threatening curse of her own, Mary is not looking for love. Her faith in miracles was lost years ago. But when Rhage’s intense animal attraction turns into something more emotional, he knows that he must make Mary his alone. And while their enemies close in, Mary fights desperately to gain life eternal with the one she loves…”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I can’t even. I’m totally in love with this series and this one just carried it on perfectly. I thought the entire series was going to be focusing on Wrath but now I find out that some of the books focus on just one character and how they open up and find true love.

This was about Rhage, one of the Brothers, and how he found the woman who would be with him forever. Rhage has this curse from the Scribe Virgin that turns him into this monster when he looses control and the only way for him to calm it down is to kill (but only to a level because severe anger causes the beast to get free) or to have a lot of sex. He goes through women really fast until he meets Mary whom he falls in love with and the romance ensues.

There is the whole side where Rhage doesn’t want to hurt Mary because of the creature but like hot-damn. xDDD Mary is one stubborn woman.

Once again the romance scenes in this book were not crude but written in a style that was, essentially, quite respectful. I hate when the crude words of body parts are used…it just sometimes annoys me quite a lot so I loved how this series is written.

I will say that I did read this book in a day; all 441 pages. I loved it so much.

The first book, Dark Lover, and this one are similar in the sense of what the characters go through. The women start off the same and then grow to find out what their lovers really are and both women are extremely strong mentality wise. As I have stated before, I hate when the women are made to look weak, but in this they aren’t. Mary had a sickness and even through all of that she still pushed through and protected a male who was definitely able to protect himself.

The series does have this primal quality to it because the Brotherhood is made up of men who are killers and are animals at the heart. They call their lovers leelan which means ‘dearest one’ while they are in a conversation with their lover or friends, but other times the female is referred to more as a mate and quite a few assertive times where the male blatantly says ‘You’re/She is mine!” Then sometimes a massive fight ensues xD. Come on! Who doesn’t want really big, good-looking men willing to fight to the death for you?!

Overall though this series is amazing. There is some serious character development. You saw in the first book that Wrath opened up to his lover, and in this one Rhage opened up to his as well. The next book in the series shows Zsadist opening up, which is definitely interesting as he is almost soul-less.

I should be finishing the next book soon and I hope that I will be able to get an interview with J.W. Ward because she is one of my favorite authors currently.

So happy reading and let me know what you think of the series if you read it!

Must Love Dukes by Elizabeth Michels

 in Books / Fiction / Hot Off The Press by

“Who ever thought a duke would be so daring?”

Summary

She can’t resist a dare.
Lillian Phillips could not imagine how her quiet, simple life had come to this. Blackmailed by the Made Duke of Thornwood into accepting one wild dare after another…all because of a pocket watch. Desperate to recover her beloved father’s pawned timepiece, Lily did something reckless and dangerous and delicious – something that led to a night she’d never forget.

He has a reputation for scandal.
When Devon Grey, Duke of Thornwood, runs into the mesmerizing, intoxicating, thieving woman who literally stole from his bedchamber – with his new pocket watch – Devon plots his revenge. If the daring wench likes to play games, he’s happy to oblige. After all, what’s the use of being the Mad Duke if you can’t have some fun? But the last laugh just might be on him…

-From the back cover

Review

I’m just going to say it outright.

I thought this book was kinda mushy.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love mushy books and such, they are a simple read and fill your head with fluff and make you all warm and fuzzy, but for some reason I didn’t love this book as much as I thought I was going to. I guess I’m not into more….”medieval” romance literature as much as I thought, but I will try more incase maybe it was just this book.

So I’ll present what I liked and what I didn’t like in this book as there were some good things as well.

First off, what I didn’t like. Let’s rip that band-aid off. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of description. There wasn’t a ton of character development and I really dislike how it objectifies women. I’m all for woman empowerment, and I know that a woman wrote this, but it always gets on my nerves when women are treated like cattle, especially in this. The main character talked tough like she would fight back, but she didn’t do anything. She needed the Duke to come in and save her and while the ‘damsel-in-distress’ is good to read and all and many people like it, for this book…I don’t know, I didn’t work for me.

I also felt that the ending was kinda rushed. It was just suddenly all this stuff was happening, all this information was thrown at you, and BAM, the book ended. I was left sitting there like, “WTF…what just happened?”

In addition to this, this is a romance book. Most romance books either are just completely flirting and teasing or there is outright sex. This book I felt was in between. The one or two sex scenes in this book were…kind of lacking in my opinion. The description was fluffy (not saying it should be explicit, but it was too child-like) and it just got on my nerves. I’m not saying that you should use crude language or foul descriptions, but don’t make it all fluffy..it just ruins reading it. Either go for it, or don’t at all. People who usually read these types of books know all about this stuff, so just go for it in my opinion.

Now to the things that I did like.

The story overall was creative on how it progressed and the slow romance between the Duke and Lily, and it had many good qualities of him pursuing her, realizing his feelings for her, and going after her. Then there was the brother Solomon…I just wanted to smack him so much and I love when there is one of those characters. It pushes you to read on to find out if something happens to him in the end.

Overall, I would recommend this book, even though there were downsides. But these downsides pertained to me personally and my overall reading experience. I am sure that many others would like it as it has a classic love story and a male fighting for a womans love. So many would love this book and I say that you give it a shot if you’re interested in this type of stuff.

Let me know what you think and happy reading!