Book Review: House of Stone (Bishop Street book 2) by Rene Schultz

House of Stone

Bishop Street book 2

Rene Schultz

Reviewed by Jacqui Bester

5 Stars

I received House of Stone for review by the author Rene D Schultz.

After reading Bishop Street, which was by far one of the best books I have ever read. I could not wait to climb into House of Stone.

Meeting the characters from BS again was a welcoming experience. I felt like I had never left them. They became a part of my "family". Following each of their stories from despair to happiness entices you to carry on reading. Rene takes real life situations that these orphaned children had to endure, how they have conquered their fears and weaves them into a beautiful tapestry of love, dedication and family.

In House of Stone, the fear of loosing someone again, becomes a reality as Maggie disappears after a horrific earthquake. Once again this family of unwanted children comes together to fight fate, and once and for all prove that no matter what life decides to throw at them, they will come out undefeated. 

When Rene writes you can be sure that the words, like honey, will drip from the pages, and you keep finding yourself wanting more. 

“The test of life is not meant to break you, but to make you stronger...” 

Four powerful childhood friendships become twisted with lies and deceit after they leave Bishop Street Orphanage. Twenty years later, the four orphans are back together--once again. Maggie is a best-selling author that lives in Los Angeles. Elizabeth, is a farmer’s wife with five children in North Bend, North Dakota. Randolph the billionaire, is a wandering nomad who has never put down roots. Lucy is finally clean and sober, and raising her daughter, after twenty years of living on the streets. 

Challenging themselves to let go of the past, and still fused together by the immeasurable power of friendship, they will never let anything get in their way again. Not the tests of courage or willingness to change, not the devastating flood that hits North Bend, and not the love and happiness they find, unexpectedly. Suddenly, their lives will all change forever when Maggie is visiting an orphanage in Honduras. The big earthquake hits and the towns are reduced to rubble, thousands of lives are lost, and Maggie is missing. Will their worst fears test their strength of survival once again!

I’m divorced and I live in a small community just north of Los Angeles where I raised my two sons. I love to garden, try new recipes, take lots of pictures, and occasionally I enjoy a glass of wine with dear friends. I’ve never jumped out of a plane, climbed Mt. Everest, or seen the Northern Lights of Alaska. But, I have danced in the rain, sent a message in a bottle, and I’ve rode my motorcycle down The Pacific Coast Highway on sunny California days!
 
My first fiction novel “Bishop Street” is coming out July 2013. This story is about four powerful friendships that begin at Bishop Street Orphanage. It continues with lies and deceit after they leave at eighteen. Then, twenty years later, redemption plays out and ultimately the strength that got them through their childhood becomes the catalyst that binds them back together. 
My passion of writing has lead me on the most amazing journey. Now, my focus is on fiction. I thrive on developing strong storylines that showcase today’s contemporary lifestyles. Rags to riches, Robinhood, and surviving the odds, seems to be my one common denominator that showcases my fascinating and diverse characters.

After my divorce, I waltzed into the world of online dating. I didn’t find my knight-in-shining armor, but instead in 2008, I wrote a very successful book on my entertaining experiences. My first book “Searching4MrRight.com” was published by a small press and you can find it on Amazon. 

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Blog Tour: Get Off On The Pain by Victoria Ashley

5 Sexy Stars

Let me just start by saying that is one of my favorite reads of the year!!! I have read every book that Victoria has published and the girl keeps pumping out greatness!! Victoria Ashley has a knack for writing amazing books about these sexy broken men that you just crave to learn more about! She sucks you in with the way she portrays her characters that you become so caught up in the story and you feel every emotion right along side of them.

"I'm fucking tainted, Lyric. Running now would be your best option."

Memphis is not your typical dark, sexy brooding alpha male. Ok, so he is but there is just so much more to him. Memphis returns to his home town, Crooked Creek, after serving 6 years in County in search of his younger brother, Alex. Once her finds his brother his plan was to leave permanently, but of course things never go as planned. 

"A part of me died behind those walls and the other part isn't sure how to go on living. I no longer know how to live in society among normal people."

Lyric is a very independent, strong willed and sexy as hell woman. I envy her strength. Three years ago Lyric moved to Crooked Creek and was instantly hired to work at Ravage Tattoos and lives with her friend Bailey. She loves photography but since her move she has lost her desire but one night she finds herself a very sexy muse. The house across from hers has been abandoned for years and one night a mysterious man takes occupancy and piques her interest. 

"I close my eyes and Lyric flashes through my mind, making my whole world stand still at the thought of fucking shit up and never seeing her again. She's the only thing that silences the demons and makes me feel alive."

Memphis and Lyric separately have their own inner demons to battle but in the mean time find each other. He is constantly fighting temptation and Lyric wants in. Can they help each other fight their inner demons? Move beyond their past? Or do they allow their past to define them? 

"Every time my grip on him shifts, his muscles tense even more, as if he isn't used to being touched. It only makes me want to help break those walls down and continue to touch him if that makes sense."

This book is not for the faint-hearted. Filled with sexual tension, flirty chemistry and scorching sex scenes!! I could not put this book down. If you are like me and are totally into bad boys with troubled pasts, strong willed women, twists and turns, filled with gut wrenching action and emotional roller coasters then this book is one for you.

"Once you start feeling - the pain never stops. Physical pain I can deal with, but emotionally; I cut myself off a long time ago. And being around Lyric makes me feel things I haven't felt in a long time; hope, need, desire and selfishness. My need to be selfish with her and have her all to myself is too great to ignore."

After you read this one, make sure you check out all of Victoria Ashley's other books, you will not be sorry.

I live for the pain; it’s what drives me to keep moving. But there comes a time when one has to push the demons aside in order to survive. 

I thought I buried them deep. I thought I was ready to finally live. Until… my brother, Alex; he throws me into the fire—right into the place I could never control myself, the one place I never want to be again. 

When I put my hands on people, they get hurt. Things happen that bring me back to that night. The one that will forever torment me. 

I’m doing fine, keeping to myself in order to ensure no one gets hurt by me. Then along comes Lyric, and all I want to do is touch her, to put my hands in places that I know will only lead to her being crushed by me. 

She’s the rush that I crave. The darkest of poison running through my veins, killing me bit by bit; like a drug I can’t get enough of even though I’m almost down to my last breath. 

And being around her only hurts more, but what she doesn’t understand is that I welcome the pain; I get off on it, which in the end leaves me with the hardest decision of my life—one that might get us all killed…

Excerpt Two:

Ever since she came into my life, standing there behind me on the porch that day, I knew she would be hard to forget. From her messy, caramel hair and pouty lips, to the fire in her big, green eyes, I knew she was going to test me unlike anyone else ever has. I could tell she was a fighter just like me. 

      The only thing I need right now is to get out of my head and away from the woman beside me.

  “Go inside, Lyric. I’ll wait here until you get in.”

      She looks over at me from the passenger seat, one hand on the door handle. She’s not letting me go so easily. I can see it in her expression. “You’re not going home?”

 I turn away and look straight ahead, refusing to look at her. If I do – I’ll cave in. I’ve already done that enough with her. It needs to stop. “No. I can’t be there right now. You really don’t need to worry about it. Now go. Goodnight.”

      She takes her hand off the handle and pulls her seatbelt back on. “Good, because I don’t feel like going home either.” She nods her head toward the road. “Let’s go.”

      “No,” I say firmly. “Just go inside.”

      “Why not? What is the big deal? What is so wrong with taking me along and getting to know me? I’m not asking you for anything other than company. It’s a big fucking world and it sucks being in it alone.”

      I let out a slow, deep breath and finally look over at her. She needs to see that I’m a fucking monster. I ruin lives and it will be no different with her. “Because I don’t want you around me when I’m drinking. I’m working hard here to keep my fucking hands off you. If I get fucked out of my mind… I’m going to want to fuck you and once I fuck you, the game changes. You don’t want that. Trust me.”

      She nervously runs her hands through her hair and looks at my lips, swallowing. 

“You don’t know shit about what I want. Maybe I’m not as innocent as you think. Now can we go? It doesn’t look like Bailey is home anyways. I don’t feel like sitting home alone.”

      She always does this to me. I don’t get why she is so hard to get rid of. She’s pushing me and I can only hold off for so long before I fuck her senseless and pull her into my dark world; a place she doesn’t belong. “Just keep your distance from me. If your friends are there then you hang out with them. Okay?”

      I look over at her when she doesn’t respond. “Okay, Lyric? I need you to understand and stay away? Say it.”

      She looks up at me with fire in her eyes. She’s not happy with being told what to do. 

Another thing I like about her. Well fuck me. “Fine. I get it. Let’s just go,” she says stiffly.

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Cover Image Photographer FuriousFotog

Cover Model Shawn Dawson

Victoria Ashley grew up in Rockford, IL and has had a passion for reading for as long as she can remember. After finding a reading app where it allowed readers to upload their own stories, she gave it a shot and writing became her passion.

She lives for a good romance book with tattooed bad boys that are just highly misunderstood and is not afraid to be caught crying during a good read. When she’s not reading or writing about bad boys, you can find her watching her favorites shows such as Sons Of Anarchy, Dexter and True Blood.

She is the author of Wake Up Call, This Regret, Slade, Hemy, and Get Off on the Pain. Victoria is currently working on more releases for 2015.

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Book Review: Fostering Love by Victoria Johns

Released Date - 15th October 2014

(Available for pre order from 30th September on Amazon Kindle)

Fostering Love

The Soul Sisters Series

By

Victoria Johns

Reviewed by Sandra Long

5 Stars

Dalton "Dolly" and Jonas were both placed in foster care in the same home. Dolly was there first and then when she was a pre-teen, a rebellious teenage Jonas came to live with them. The foster parents were very loving and supportive and wanted these two foster children, and the younger twin boys that they had adopted, to consider themselves a family. They saw the attraction between Dolly and Jonas and did everything in their power to prevent it and contain it, even to encouraging Jonas to enlist in the Navy as soon as he finished high school in order to separate the two.

Neither ever forgot the other even though several year went by. Jonas served heroically in the Navy, saw combat and was promoted. Dolly went off to college and majored in her great love---photography. She and Jonas both had relationships with other people during the years they were apart but never lost the love they felt for each other. They kept in touch over the years, but talking as foster siblings and neither ever told the other of their undying love.

Dolly returns to their hometown to practice her profession of photography and has a reasonably successful business. Her best friends from high school are still there and still single and the four of them spend a lot of time together. When Jonas unexpectedly returns to the town and becomes manager of the only bar/nightclub in town, he does not tell Dolly he is coming home and does not contact her. When she sees him at the club, he is with the school tramp who had gone to their high school and Jonas had a sexual relationship with back then, that Dolly had walked in on one night. This girl that Dolly and her friends called "Tits" worked at this nightclub as a bartender and she was all over Jonas. Jonas' high school friends are still around also but some of them have designs on Dolly themselves while others try to give him advice that he doesn't take. From all appearances he is having a relationship with Tits. He is very secretive about his personal life and his future plans, even from his best friends.

Dolly and Jonas both had issues from their childhood, as do all foster children. They also struggled with the way some people, especially Tits, call them brother and sister and insinuate that a sexual relationship between them would be incest. Tits does everything she can to trap Jonas, even telling everyone that she is carrying his baby. Her jealousy of Dolly escalates to the breaking point.

There comes a time that Jonas and Dolly tell each other of their love and have a night of explosive passion, but Jonas, believing Tits is going to give birth to his child and that he has a moral as well as legal obligation to provide for and be a parent to that child, tells Dolly they can only have that one night together but she will always have his love. Tits harasses Dolly and even threatens her but Dolly doesn't take the threats as seriously as she should. The threats get worse when the whole town discovers Dolly is pregnant with Jonas' twins.

Fostering Love is filled with love, laughter, heartbreak, tears and suspense, everything the reader needs to get fully involved with a book and not want to put it down until the very end. There is sex, and it is steamy, but it is not over done and helps add to the storyline. This novel is a comfortable length for a relaxing day of reading for enjoyment. Excellent book and I hope I see more from this author. Five stars.

Fostering Love is the first book in the Soul Sisters Series, which tells the story of four girls, friendship and their path to finding ‘the one’.

Being “soul sisters” is a way of life for Dalton, Aneelia, Charlotte and Florence.  

Growing up together means they’ve shared all of life’s major highs and lows and managed to survive with a friendship so strong that real blood sisters would be jealous of it.

Dalton Frobisher has loved the same guy since she was a teenager.

It’s just unfortunate that he doesn’t love her back, or rather, can’t.

Growing up around the person you believe should be yours is hard, seeing him with other girls is harder but watching him leave is torture.  It’s a constant state of grief because he’s still in your life and you can’t have him.

Life is full of regrets and not telling him how she felt was the biggest regret she had... so far.  Dalton wasn’t going to miss that opportunity the next time it came around.

She just didn’t expect the fallout to be so... life changing.

Victoria Johns is a writer who enjoys sharing a happily ever after and believes that it’s every good girl’s dream to experience a steamy one.  Growing up in North West England in a large family surrounded by love and support she found her Prince Charming many years ago and enjoys living the life they’ve made with their son.

She’s always had a creative imagination and decided that some of the stories bubbling in her head needed to be shared, so she’s created this pen name to give them their freedom to be loved by others.

When she’s not writing she’s overdosing on crisps, Rosé wine, trashy TV and raunchy reads.

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Review: Anew: Awakened (Book 1) by Josie Litton

Anew: Book One: Awakened

Coming Soon - January 12, 2015

By Josie Litton

Reviewed by Sandra Long

5 Stars

In this erotic retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” set in the near future, a beautiful young woman awakens in the garden of a secluded palazzo with no knowledge of who she is or how she came to be there. For the man who walks out of the darkness to claim her, she is at once the ultimate challenge and the greatest temptation.

Haunted by terrifying memories of another existence, Amelia is caught between passionate desire for Ian and longing to discover her true self. Even as he is determined to possess her body and soul, Ian’s need to protect Amelia leads him into a confrontation with his tormented past. 

Together, they face the challenges that lie beyond the sanctuary of the palazzo in the glittering world city on the edge of cataclysmic change. In the midst of sensual excess that conceals seething rebellion, Amelia and Ian will discover that love has become the ultimate threat to survival.

This is a futuristic novel, and a very good one as it pertains to a hot topic even today--human cloning.  A very wealthy couple has a daughter named Susannah who has  a terminal illness. In an attempt to keep her alive, they have her cloned in order to harvest organs from her clone to save her. This clone was kept in a liquid artificial womb and stem cells or whatever was taken from her as needed over the years as she grew. Supposedly she was not conscious of any of this and would be an identical replica of Susannah in every way.

Susannah did grow up and she fell in love with a man named Ian, also a very wealthy man who was in the arms business in a very different world from the one we live in today. A caste system was in place and it was very strictly enforced and very difficult for anyone to go from a lower, working class grouping, into an upper caste. Cities and homes had armed guards to prevent intrusion from one class into the other with the exception of the "workers", who provided labor for the wealthy but never crossed them in any way and had to sign a secrecy pact never to divulge any information they may be privy to in their occupations. Cloning was very controversial, and illegal in some places, and their were militant groups whose focus was to destroy any clones they could find and any institution where cloning occurred.

Another off shoot of human cloning was "brain mapping", in which the brain patterns of the human were transmitted to the clones, supposedly making the brain function identical to the original as much as the physical body was, and the result was a clone known as a "replica".  Susannah had arranged to have this done with her clone and then a year later Susannah had died, leaving ownership of her "replica clone" to Ian.

The story begins as the replica, named Amelia after Susannah's imaginary childhood friend, is awakening at Ian's summer home. She has total amnesia at first and Ian must tell her about her past. She is very similar to Susannah but not identical as Susannah had some injuries as a child that changed the contours of her face. Her clone did not experience that, so the face is different. Amelia is very deeply attracted to Ian but her personality begins to evolve and she is very different from Susannah. She likes different foods, different music and where Susannah was very meek and submissive, Amelia is very opinionated and outspoken.

Ian and Amelia fall deeply in love and their sex life is hot and frequent. But they are both unsure if their love is actual love for each other or a direct result of the brain mapping that Susannah had done. Ian decides to give Amelia a chance to find out and notifies Susannah's brother and grandmother, who are her only surviving family, about the existence of the "clone" AKA Amelia. Susannah's brother immediately comes to claim her and take her home. Amelia thinks Ian wants rid of her so she willing goes with him and tries to establish a life as "cousin Amelia". She quickly learns that life in the real world is totally different from the life she has been living in Ian's compound since her awakening. There is extreme prejudice against clones and replicas and she must keep her real identity a secret or her life will be in danger.

The story evolves around Amelia's attempt to fit into a word that is totally new to her. Her only memories are occasional flashbacks to the time she spent in the artificial womb and the pain of the extractions over the years as Susannah needed stem cells from her body in order to survive. She does have an out standing intelligence and absorbs all the knowledge he can from internet and other sources, but the emotions are totally new to her and something she has to learn to deal with totally on her own. There are individuals and groups out to identify and kill all clones and replicas so she is always at risk. There are suitors who find her beautiful and are attracted to her as possible mates. There is always Ian in her thoughts and in her life and she cannot decide if he loves her or Susannah and she is only a substitute.

This is a very well written futuristic love story with drama and suspense to keep us interested from beginning to the end, which leaves us hoping for a sequel. Five stars for a very enjoyable read.

Josie Litton is the author of several NY Times and USA Today bestselling romances.

After taking time off to raise a family and get a master’s degree, she is delighted to be writing again. Inspired by the story of “Sleeping Beauty”, her new erotic romance, ANEW: Book One: Awakened will be published on January 12, 2015.

Married and living in Connecticut, she is the parent of two grown children. Becoming an empty nester has left her plenty of time to write, think about writing, plan what to write next, and read. When she isn’t doing that, she’s cooking, gardening, and traveling.

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