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NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHT ~ TEST DRIVE (Body Shop Bad Boys #1) by Marie Harte
TEST DRIVE
(Body Shop Bad Boys #1)
by Marie Harte
A smokin’ hot new series from Marie Harte featuring tough-guy
mechanics and the women who jump-start their hearts.
GET TO KNOW THE BODY SHOP BAD BOYS
Johnny, Foley, Sam, and Lou are the rough and tumble mechanics of Webster’s Garage. These reformed bad boys are used to living fast, but it’s the women in their lives who take them from zero to sixty in a heartbeat.
JOHNNY
Johnny Devlin’s a charmer with a checkered past. He’s had his eye on scorching-hot bartender Lara Valley for ages, but she’s rejected him more than once. That doesn’t mean he won’t come to her aid when some dirtbag mauls her. When she asks him on a date as a no-strings-attached thank you, he can’t say no.
And then he’s saying nothing but hell, yes.
Excerpt:
When they left the car, the wind picked up, and she wished she’d brought a heavier jacket. So unnerved by his presence, she’d grabbed the first thing she’d found in the closet.
“Cold? Here. Let me help.” Johnny hugged her to him, and the subtle scent of his cologne, which had driven her crazy all evening, hit her hard. “Stay close to me, and I’ll keep you warm.”
She felt his smile against her hair. “Is that a line?”
“Why? Is it working?”
“Not yet. But if it gets any colder out here, it might.”
He laughed as they walked into the movie theater. After she purchased the horror film tickets, he grabbed her by the hand and squeezed. “Thank God. I thought for a minute there Alfred’s Three Loves might have swayed you.”
“No way. I’m not into period pieces.” She made a face. “But I can do horror.” She just had to say it. “I’m on a date with you, aren’t I?”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.” He swatted her on the ass, and she warmed all over. “After you.” He motioned for her to precede him.
To her surprise, she enjoyed the frightfest. She jumped at all the right parts and laughed when he did the same. Unlike most guys, he didn’t try to act macho. He had fun, made her laugh, and turned her on without trying. He was just so…Johnny.
They exited the theater amidst chatter about the excessive gore in the movie. “Wasn’t that great?” she gushed.
“A little over the top when the doll started bleeding from every orifice, don’t you think?”
“I thought that made her seem more real.”
He snorted. “Yeah. Dolls that bleed black and screech about demonic possession are so lifelike.”
“Exactly.”
He dragged her with him out of the way of a throng of theatergoers exiting from another movie. The multiplex had been packed, and she felt the crush as they moved toward the building’s exit.
“Thanks,” she said, breathless, as the wall of the corridor braced her back.
Then his mouth was on hers, a whisper of a kiss full of heat and desire. It was gone before she could blink, and she could only stare up at him, wanting more.
“I’ve been dying to do that all evening. And, well, a guy can only take so much temptation.”
“Temptation?” she echoed weakly.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “You loved a demonic doll. I mean, you hate baseball, but you loved Suzy Oozy—she of the hellish diapers and acidic eats-through-anything vomit.”
She nodded, still dazed. “I know, right? Great stuff.”
He chuckled and moved closer, away from the crowd pushing through the complex.
“Problem is I really liked Suzy. Now I’m going to have to hide my niece’s baby-cries-a lot doll the next time I see it. Talk about super creepy.” She rubbed her lips, staring at his, still reeling from that kiss.
“You say creepy, then you touch your mouth where I kissed you. I’m sensing a correlation.”
“Big word for a self-proclaimed knuckle-dragger—wasn’t that what you called your friends at Ray’s the other night?”
“Well, them, sure. But I’m more advanced than that. I can even spell correlation.” He paused. “With a dictionary.”
She was enthralled with him, despite being on her guard not to be. “How are you so much fun? Is this part of your shtick?”
He frowned. “My what?”
“Your shtick. Your routine. Do you get your dates laughing so hard that they don’t notice when you have them half-undressed?”
“Now, Lara. They always know when they’re getting naked with me. How could you think otherwise? I have standards, you know.”
He looked wounded, and she laughed and let him pull her along with the crowd. He kept his hand around hers, even when they left the theater, and she didn’t pull away.
“So, batting cages?” he asked hopefully as they found the car.
She groaned. “No thank you.”
He shrugged. “Your loss.”
“Thanks, Kareem.”
He looked pained. “That’s basketball.”
“Whatever. I’m not a fan of either sport.”
“Obviously. Kareem?”
She laughed at him. “I was kidding. Kareem Abdul Jabbar played for the Lakers from ’79 to ’85. Do you know what pro team he started with?”
“Do you?” He opened the car door for her, then circled to the driver side.
“The Milwaukee Bucks in 1969.”
“Okay, I’m impressed. That almost makes up for not liking baseball.”
She got into the car with him and confessed, “I only know that because my dad used to force me to watch old games with him when I was a kid. The basketball I could tolerate, but show me a Mets game, and I want to throw up. I think my head might spin too, worse than Suzy’s did for sure.” She sat with him in the quiet of the moment, wondering if she’d gone too far. Vomit wasn’t exactly sexy. “Um, not that sitting in absolute silence with you isn’t awkward or anything—”
“Glad to hear it.”
“—but if we’re not going to do the baseball thing, what did you have in mind? And don’t even think of suggesting we go back to your place.” She liked that neither of them had yet mentioned just ending the date. It was only a little after ten on a Friday night. Early by anyone’s standards.
“Well then. Take the wind out of my sails, why don’t you?” He blew out a breath. “Fine. We’ll go to yours.”
“My place?”
He started the car and drove out of the lot. “Exactly. Great minds think alike.”
Her heart pounded. “Exactly what are we thinking?”
“That we’ll hang out at your place, where you’ll practice more nursing on me. You can examine my pitiful bruised cheek, you know, the one I got rescuing a damsel in distress?”
“Going to milk that for all it’s worth, aren’t you?”
“Hell yeah. I figure if I remind you enough, you might take pity on me and let me kiss you again.”
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
I loved the McCauley Brothers series by Marie Harte and when she announced that she was releasing a spin-off series I was delighted!
We had come across the mechanics that are gonna be the main characters in the Body Shop Bad Boys books as they work for Del and her dad – Del being the leading lady in the last McCB story.
I really liked TEST DRIVE. Both main characters were fun and likable.
Johnny comes across as a bit of a player who never has to chase the ladies but Lara has spurned his advances for more than a while and this makes him more interested in her.
Lara is working at night in the bar the guys frequent and by day she’s studying to become a nurse. She has her eyes firmly fixed on her future and no hot, full of himself mechanic is gonna mess with the schedule….. or so she thinks!!
As they begin to spend time together we see that there’s more to both characters than we originally saw. Johnny is bright, interesting, sweet, loyal and fun but unsure of how to deal with a relationship.
Lara was independent, strong willed, focused and caring – especially when it came to family and those who mattered to her.
The build up of their relationship made for good reading and together they were hot as hell!!
The relationship between the guys at the garage was a fair part of the story too, and while they rib each other mercilessly at times, they are a family and have each others backs. no matter what. Some of their antics are laugh out loud funny and I can’t wait to find out more about each of them!!
Test Drive was a great start to this new series and a 5* read for me!!
About Marie Harte:
Caffeine addict, boy referee, and romance aficionado, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author MARIE HARTE is a confessed bibliophile and devotee of action movies. Whether hiking or biking around town, or hanging at the local tea shop, she’s constantly plotting to give everyone a happily ever after. She lives in in Central Oregon.
Visit Marie’s website and fall in love.
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BLOG TOUR ~ The Change Up (Arlington Aces #1) by Elley Arden
Readers looking for something a little different will love The Change Up by Elley Arden,
a twist on the traditional billionaire romance.
Out now!
The Change Up
(Arlington Aces #1)
by Elley Arden
Follow the tour and enter to #win a grand prize of a $25.00 Amazon Giftcard
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Title: The Change Up
Series: Arlington Aces #1
Author: Elley Arden
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 16, 2016
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Length: 66k words
Format: Digital
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4405-9151-8
Synopsis:
Commercial real estate mogul Rachel Reed is the one person her father can depend on, so when he walks into her Philadelphia office two weeks shy of her fortieth birthday to drop a personal and professional bomb, she rises to the occasion. She will help get his independent professional baseball team up and running before the inaugural season, and then … she will sell the team to recoup his substantial investment. It’s a tall order, but Rachel knows one thing for sure: a sexy nuisance from her past and a few acres of trees won’t stand in her way.
Former minor-leaguer-turned-landscaper Sam Sutter is surprised to find his brother’s ex in the woods behind the house he bought when he cashed out his signing bonus and said so long to baseball. He’s even more surprised to learn “his” trees are on her chopping block. There’s no way he’ll desecrate his nature-loving mother’s memory by letting that happen. But butting heads with the beautiful business woman is a tricky task that leads Sam to accept a position as head groundskeeper at her father’s stadium. Working under Rachel’s watchful, smoldering eyes might be Sam’s undoing.
She doesn’t know a thing about baseball. He swore off the sport ten years ago. But strange things happen when field dust gets in your veins.
Find out more at: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks
Excerpt One:
He didn’t trust her, and that was even before she tilted her head and regarded him through narrowed eyes. “You of all people must be excited about my father bringing professional baseball to Arlington.”
Here we go. Sam shrugged. “I don’t really follow baseball these days.”
“That’s a shame. Sam used to play for the …” she looked from Wes back to Sam, “The Cubs, right?”
Sam nodded once and added, “Never made it out of the minors.” Why sugarcoat it? Chasing “the bigs” in a rusty bus, believing he was the next big thing, caused him to miss out on a lot of things. He was still trying to make up for some of that.
Again he thought of his mother, and this time the guilt was almost too much to swallow.
“What are you doing now?” Rachel asked, surprising him, not because he expected her to keep tabs on his career, but because she’d never been the kind to care much about other people—at least that had been his experience when she’d labeled him “whiny little Sammy” who was always trying to come between her and Luke.
“I’m working for my dad,” he said with little genuine interest in keeping this conversation going.
“Just like me.”
Except he wasn’t like her, and he couldn’t leave that assumption hanging between them. “We’re nothing alike, Rachel. For starters, I would never even think about cutting down these trees. That would be a really shitty thing to do.”
She shrugged. “What can I say, Sammy? Progress can be painful, but in the end, it’s the best thing for everyone.”
“Because the best thing for you is the best thing for everyone?” He scoffed. She hadn’t changed one bit in twenty years. “Try telling that to the birds.” Sam looked at the wide-eyed man taking this all in beside her, and nodded curtly. “Nice to meet you.”
But that was a lie. It would only be nice if the guy drove back to Pittsburgh without touching a single tree. If one trunk fell … Sam hated to even think about it. Thank God his nature-loving mother wasn’t alive to see this.
He wandered off with Babe beside him and the warbler overhead, craving the usual Sunday peace and quiet, but he kept hearing phantom chainsaws and wood chippers. How much parking did the Reeds need? Surely they wouldn’t cut down all of this. He reached out and let almond-shaped leaves tickle his palm. But what if they did? What if he had to say goodbye to Sunday walks and evening fireside chats with his dad? And what if he had to look out his kitchen window and see a baseball stadium every damn day. He stopped. Babe stopped, too.
That was not going to happen.
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
I really enjoyed The Change Up. It was a good, fun, well written read and I’m looking forward to more in the series. Even though I know next to nothing about baseball, I did find that element of the book entertaining and the story thread around the team was interesting.
One of the things that I particularly liked about the lead characters was that they were a bit older, not some 20+ year olds with no life experience.
Initially, Rachel didn’t win me over. She came across as having a kinda crappy attitude, lack of interest in anything but business, a coolness and general lack of anything resembling emotions which wore on my patience; but as the story moved on and she started to thaw out and lose the constant ‘business Rachel’ head I began to like her, especially when we found out why she felt she had to be so work driven and that under that tough as nails front she really did care.
Sam… I really liked Sam from the get go. He was sweet, hot and sexy. My heart hurt for him – the things he regretted and blamed himself for and the responsibility he felt to his dad, brother and business held him back from acknowledging the things that were important to him and from doing what would make him happy.
The Change Up was in a way about second chances for Rachel and Sam – in both their professional and personal lives. Sam had once been a baseball player and the reasons around him retiring had him living a less than truly happy life. Rachel lived in the shadow of her father, constantly trying to prove herself to him to the extent that she gave up just about everything that should have mattered in her life.
The banter and interactions between the two main characters lead to a reassessing of their opinions of each others – Rachel had gone out with Sam’s older brother when they were younger before she set her sights on bigger and better things and left him to move to the city. Neither had good memories of the other but as they started to get to know each other things between them started to change and their attraction was obvious.
There was a good supporting cast – one or two of them I’d like to learn more about – and I’m hoping that Elley will be featuring them in future books in the series.
The story around Rachel’s dad having Alzheimer’s was well written and felt very real – having had family experience with this horrible condition I could totally relate to the feelings and emotions that those around Danny experienced.
All in all, for me, The Change Up was a good 4* read that I’d definitely recommend whether you are a sports fan or not.
Excerpt Two:
She thought about that for a minute, thought about him, standing there, looking at her like she was the only woman in the world, and the heat was undeniable. The attraction unmistakable. Sam Sutter was a mouth-wateringly beautiful man. Five years younger and without a discernible life plan, but damn it, libidos didn’t care about those things. And honestly, the only thing holding her back from taking out all her recent frustrations on his blessed body right now was the fact his crew was just outside the leftfield wall.
To neutralize the lust bubbling in her veins, she asked, “Do you miss baseball?”
He looked broadsided by the random question and didn’t rush to answer.
“I know that came out of left field …” she grinned at her cleverness, “but I’ve been wondering about it ever since the festival. When my dad was asking you about baseball, you looked very uncomfortable.”
His gaze shifted away from her and anchored onto something in the grandstand, but then he shrugged like she hadn’t hit a nerve. “I was uncomfortable because I was worried about your father. I wasn’t sure what was going on. That’s all.” But his jaw pulsed, and she knew better.
“Sam …” She stepped closer, narrowing the space between them. “I saw that same look a minute ago when I asked you to help me out with the coaching prospects. You miss baseball. It’s okay to admit it. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be human. God, you played every year of your life until you were how old? Just because you were ready to hang it up professionally doesn’t mean you don’t miss the game personally.” He looked at her then with a hurt in his eyes that seemed to be saying maybe he wasn’t as ready to hang it up as he pretended to be.
“I miss some things more than others,” he said. “There’s a rush you get from playing the game.” Silence stretched out between them as the warm wind wrapped them in the sun-dried fragrances of spring. All the while, his eyes roamed her face until they focused on her lips. “Fortunately you can get that rush from other things.”
“Like?” she asked, breathlessly, knowing damned well she was encouraging him.
“This,” he whispered before he leaned in and kissed her, a brush of his lips, soft as the breeze that carried the heated scent of his skin to her nose and then to her brain.
Author Bio:
Elley Arden is a born and bred Pennsylvanian who has lived as far west as Utah and as far north as Wisconsin. She drinks wine like it’s water (a slight exaggeration), prefers a night at the ballpark to a night on the town, and believes almond English toffee is the key to happiness.
Elley has been reading romance novels since she was a sixteen-year-old babysitter, sneaking Judith McNaught and Danielle Steele novels off the bookshelves of the women who employed her. To say she’d been sheltered up to that point is an understatement. No one had ever told her women could live bold, love freely, and have sex lives that were exciting and fulfilling. (They don’t teach these things in Catholic school!) Now that she knows, she’s happy to spread the word. The women she writes about may be fictional, but the success, respect, and love they find on the page is a universal right for women everywhere.
Elley writes books with charming characters, emotional stories, and sexy romance. Visit The Bookshelf for a detailed listing.
You can also visit her online at the following places: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon
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