Gorgeous, incendiary, tempting as original sin, and totally off limits.
He’s rough, dominant, and hot as hell on wheels. Channing Hensley blew into my life like a firestorm, and I’ve been in love and lust with him since the minute I laid eyes on him
All in secret, of course.
He doesn’t know. No one can know the things I dream of him doing to me.
No one can know that I – the picture-perfect sweet little good girl – want him to be my first.
So I hid it away instead, in a letter, where I poured out my heart and my deepest darkest fantasies to the man with the body made for reckless choices, and the piercing green eyes that dare you to make them. The man with the dark past and the fierce gaze that lingers on me in a way that takes my breath away.
He’s six years older than me. He works for my family’s law firm.
He’s totally wrong, utterly inappropriate, and completely irresistible.
Channing Hensley is my stepbrother.
And I want him.
Filthy, scandalous, and so sugary sweet your teeth will hurt. This one’s a heaping dose of wrong in the right kind of way ;). If an older, dominant, obsessed alpha claiming his untouched heroine sounds like your cup of tea (oh, you know it is), then you should probably dive right in. Safe, no cheating, and a HEA guaranteed.
#1 bestselling contemporary romance author Madison Faye is the dirty alter ego of the very wholesome, very normal suburban housewife behind the stories. While she might be a wife, mom, and PTA organizer on the outside, there’s nothing but hot, steamy, and raunchy fantasies brewing right beneath the surface!
Tired of keeping them hidden inside or only having them come out in the bedroom, they’re all here in the form of some wickedly hot stories. Single-minded alpha hero, sinfully taboo relationships, and wildly over-the-top scenarios. If you love it extra dirty, extra hot, and extra naughty, this is the place for you! (Just don’t tell the other PTA members you saw her here…)
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We are excited to celebrate the release of PLAYING THE PAUSES by Michelle Hazen.
This is the second installment in her Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll series.
Follow the tour for reviews, excerpts, guest posts, plus enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
“Hazen’s use of the frantic energy of a rock band’s tour contrasts perfectly with the slow and seductive dance this couple engages in. Readers are sure to enjoy following The Red Letters on their drama-fueled climb to fame. “ —RT Book Reviews
“To call Playing the Pauses an erotic novel alone would be to belie its equally strong explorations of the boundaries between personal, career, and sexual growth.” —Midwest Book Review
When an ultra-independent tour manager meets the one musician she can’t resist, their kinks fit together perfectly, but their lives don’t. Michelle Hazen is back with PLAYING THE PAUSES, the second, stand-alone installment in her Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll series. Fans of Kylie Scott’s Stage Dive Series and YOU REALLY GOT ME by Erika Kelly, will love this bad boy, friends with benefits romance with a dash of BDSM mixed in.
Title: Playing the Pauses Series: Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll #2 Author: Michelle Hazen
Release Date: March 5, 2018 Publisher: Self-published Genres: Contemporary Romance
Synopsis:
Rock Star Dom + his Queen of the Spreadsheet employee = KRYPTONITE
Kate is a globe-trotting tour manager who can’t be tied down.
Danny is a Dominant rock star and tattoo artist who needs her help to explore his true kinks.
Kate just got her big break, running an international tour for a rising band. Her job is everything to her…at least until she meets the band’s enigmatic bass player.
After they collide in one unforgettably erotic night on a hotel balcony, he comes to her with a proposition. As a former BDSM club performer, Danny’s spent so long fulfilling other people’s fantasies that now he wants to reclaim his own—and he says she’s the only one who can help.
Getting caught in bed with her rock star boss could cost her career, and yet there’s something about Danny’s quiet intensity that she can’t resist. He steals her heart, hard. But the end of the tour is approaching, and their jobs are headed two different directions.
To be together one of them will have to stop touring, but the only thing they crave as much as each other is music.
** This book can be read and understood as a standalone, but does contain spoilers for earlier books in the series. **
So many of the songs that remind me of Danny are Rage Against the Machine. He has a very quiet soul, but likes very loud music, but that band isn’t a great match for the energy of most of the book.
I’m going to go through and suggest a song for each chapter, to match the mood and often to match the lyrics to what’s going on. It’s free of all but the most harmless spoilers and will be fun to read before you’ve read the book, and even more fun to go back to (and listen to!) as you’re reading the book itself once you can understand all the little inside jokes and references.
Ch 1 Let the Games Begin: “Off the Ground” by The Record Company. This has just the right energy for Kate’s confident stride into Danny’s life, plus a super-memorable bass line that seems like something Danny might play. The Record Company is one of the bands I saw live (In Danny’s home of Portland, Oregon!) as part of my research for this series. I feel like Danny’s BFF, Jera, would really approve of this band’s barefoot drummer.
Ch 2 With the Band: “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” by Cake. This is Kate’s theme song, as we get to see her swoop in and swiftly reorganize the band’s whole tour with the hand of a master, and enough energy left over to hit the mosh pit on opening night.
Ch 3 Raw: “Never Let Me Go” by Florence and the Machine. Because this chapter feels utterly inevitable, which is perfectly captured by the swell of the vocalist’s voice in this song. It also feels like it’s being sung into an unlimited expanse of air; just right for a scene taking place on a balcony high above a city.
Ch 4 Unconditional: “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert) because we all need a friend who will love us even once they know all our most personal secrets.
Ch 5 Communication: “Sail” by AWOLnation
Ch 6 Good: “When the Sun Rises” by Stop Light Observations. Life on a tour bus, baby… This song has all that energy.
Ch 7 You: “Where I Stood” by Missy Higgins, for the lyrics. Then:
“Bloodstream” by Stateless. Dark and addictive and romantic as all get out.
Ch 8 Close Calls: “Trouble” by Pink. Then “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, because it is referenced in the scene.
Ch 9 Switch: “One Time” by Marian Hill. Kate at her most sensually powerful.
Ch 10 Mercy: “Closer” by NIN. This is my favorite Danny song because it’s filthy and unapologetically sexual, just like him.
Ch 11 To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Two scenes here.
First scene: “Long Line of Cars” by Cake. Two words, people: Porn. Pinata.
Second scene: “Slow it Down” by The Lumineers- Because it’s dreamy and sweet, and for the line “Rest your arms. Rest your legs.”
“Passing Afternoon” by Iron and Wine- this is the song Kate references in the chapter.
I think you’ll have noticed by now that this playlist zips from immersive rock to fun and flirty, to heart-wrenchingly romantic. RT Book Reviews, I think, explained this better than I could when they said: “Hazen’s use of the frantic energy of a rock band’s tour contrasts perfectly with the slow and seductive dance this couple engages in.”
Ch 12 Crossing Lines: “When I’m Small” by Phantogram. This is the bass-forward song I always hear in my head during the concert at the start of this scene.
Ch 13 Playing: “Yellow Ledbetter” Pearl Jam. Slow and private and sweet.
Ch 14 Girl Talk: “Hold On” by the Alabama Shakes
Ch 15 It’s a Sign: “Bartholomew” by The Silent Comedy
Ch 16 Stay: “Stay” by Megan Nicole.
Ch 17 The Best Part of Waking Up: “Oblivion” by Bastille
Ch 18 Meet the Parents: “Put the Gun Down” by ZZ Ward
Ch 19 Draw Me A Picture: “Unsteady” by X Ambassadors (Another band I saw while researching this series. I was so short I couldn’t see anything over the crowd. I could hear that they had a drummer but was never able to visually verify this to be fact)
Ch 20 The Ring: Ooh, this is an eclectic chapter. First: “Kiss Me” by Ed Sheeran
Second: “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” by Cake
Ch 21 3 AM in Munich: “Gold to Glass” by the Revivalists. What, you didn’t think I was going to make it through a whole playlist without a Revivalists’ song, did you? Pshaw. I saw them for the first time during 2016 Mardi Gras week as research for this book, and I went from that to driving everywhere and sleeping in my car to see six shows in one year, in 4 different states over 2300 miles apart. Yes, they’re that good.
Ch 22 Your Answer: “Love is a B*tch” by Two Feet. This fits the sexy, deliberate feel of the scene, and it sounds like something The Red Letters (Danny’s band) would play. I can just picture Jax whispering into the microphone, and Danny in the background, driving the whole song with his bass.
Ch 23 Happy Birthday: For this one, I absolutely have to link to YouTube. Danny plays a no-singing version of Happy Birthday on his bass in this chapter, which sounds so gravitational you have to hear it for yourself.
Ch 24 My So-Called Home: “All I Want” by Kodaline
Ch 25 For Better or Worse: “The Light of Day” Silent Comedy. This is the song you should start playing the first moment Kate and Danny are alone.
Ch 26 Playing the Pauses: “Far Away” by Nickelback. And yes, fair game to make fun of me for including a Nickelback song in my playlist. It’s still the perfect song for this moment.
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Michelle Hazen is a nomad with a writing problem. Years ago, she and her husband ducked out of the 9 to 5 world and moved into their truck. As a result, she wrote most of her books with solar power in odd places, including a bus in Thailand, a golf cart in a sandstorm, and a beach in Honduras. Currently, she’s addicted to The Walking Dead, hiking, and Tillamook cheese.
Samantha “The Body” Dixon had once been a famous runway model who’d walked every catwalk from Paris to Milan and back again. When her career abruptly comes to a screeching halt, this leggy blonde sets out to prove she’s got a whole lot more to offer than just a pretty face and killer rack – especially when fate lands her back on her former fiancé’s radar.
Benjamin Atkins might have once been the most in demand photographer in the fashion industry, but times have changed, and he’d learned the hard way to value substance over style. Now, he’s built a new life doing what he loves in the beautiful town of Paradise, Tennessee. That is, until the woman he could never forget struts back into his life.
When these two ex-lovers reconnect after a bitter break-up, can they overcome their heartbreak and find a way back to their own personal paradise found?
Ben shrugged negligently. “Can’t help it. It’s a really great ass. Always has been,” he complimented her easily as he eyed her body appreciatively.
It ought to be, Sami thought wryly as her body heated under the weight of his stare. She’d certainly worked hard enough to maintain it over the years. For all the good it had done her, she thought bitterly. Even after all the dieting and exercising, she’d still lost her modeling contract to a younger, shinier version of herself. Of course, that wasn’t Ben’s fault and being a bitch to him now wouldn’t get her job back. “Thanks,” she muttered, “It’s not quite as perky as it once was, but I try to keep it in shape.
“Trust me, babe, your ass is as gorgeous as it ever was,” Ben assured her with a playful wink.
God, was she imagining things or was he actually flirting with her? Mentally giving herself a sound slap on the back of her head, Sami knew she couldn’t let her thoughts wander in that direction. She needed to cut this painfully familiar banter off now. “That doesn’t answer my other question, Ben . Why are you following me?” she questioned impatiently as she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to face him.
“I’m following you because I think you and I have some things to discuss,” he answered evenly. “In fact, we’re long overdue on having a chat, don’t you? It’s time we hash some things out between us.”
Automatically shaking her head, Sami backed up a step, wholly unprepared to go down that road with Ben. “Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ben. I think we said everything we had to say to each other three years ago, didn’t we?” she asked before turning and resuming her walk down the street.
I’m gonna have to move and find me a town like Paradise…. 🙂
I really enjoy these books from the Sarah O’Rourke gals and Paradise Found was no exception.
A great second chance romance – one of my fave genres – along with some interfering friends, favourite characters from the series and a hero determined not to make a mistake again, Samantha didn’t stand a chance when it came to meeting Benjamin again!
While I understood her motives behind leaving him in the first place I didn’t agree with what she did and she should have spoken to him – but as with all good stories, there wouldn’t be a book if the characters used their common sense and did the right thing now, would there??
This story was packed with humour, chemistry, heat, love and affection.
A great read and another fun instalment in the Paradise series.
I rate Paradise Found 4*
Sarah O’Rourke is actually TWO besties who live three states apart and write at all hours of the day and night! Born and raised in the Southern United States, they are overly attached to their one-click accounts, can’t make it through the day without copious doses of caffeine, and spend way too much time on the phone with each other.
Between them, they have four children and twenty-five-plus years of marriage. They hate empty chocolate wrappers and writer’s block, love to talk to readers . . . and oh, by the way, they write about strong, kick-ass women and hot alpha heroes!
Book Loving Pixies 