Book-Bosomed Book Blog's 2017 Book Awards

🎁🎁🎁 Happy Holidays! 🎁🎁🎁

It's that time of year again. Not only are the holidays upon us, but so is the best books of the year list! Because I like to switch things up a little when I do this yearly romance shout-out, I decided to not only highlight the best books, but some of their best features. My goal remains the same as previous years though—to give the featured titles more attention (that they aptly deserve) and to send the authors a big holiday hug for making something special this year. 🤗

I was going to leave the actual trophy to your imagination, but then I decided it would be more fun to encourage audience participation. I’ve set up a little poll so you can vote. MTV has it’s moonman statue; the Grammy’s have their golden gramaphone; Book-Bosomed blog needs something fitting.  So cast your vote and then keep scrolling to find out who's getting them!

And the winners are....

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 🥁 

 

Best Romance Couple

🏆The Winner (s): A tie!  One Flight Stand by Kim Linwood and Untamable by Jamie Schlosser

What does it take to get this distinction? Well I had to love both the hero and heroine, love them equally, and love them together. That’s not to say that the other titles on this list or other books I read didn’t have likable heroes and heroines or couples who were meant to be. But there was just something upbeat, cool, and fun loving about these two couples. I wanted to hang out with Montana and Andrea and Emery and Estelle, maybe even double date with them if my hubs and I were worthy. LOL I think they’d bring chemistry; I’m sure they’d bring antics; (they might also bring cheese and cats😖); but I just know there’d never be a dull moment with them around.

Best Romance Heroine

🏆The Winner:   Her Bodyguard by Sabrina Paige
What does it take to get this distinction? What's not to love about a princess who scales palace walls; isn’t afraid to put her hand down her bodyguard’s pants to retrieve her phone; and can maintain her grace and dignity while being caught handcuffed before the king?
Weak heroines never make my yearly list so all of the gals featured here are strong female characters. Sadly, women used to always be presented as flat, stereotypical females in fiction, relegated to that status by male writers. Then women entered the profession and slowly things began to change. We still have a long way to go; there’s plenty of misogynist representations out there, but it’s heroines like this one that are storming the patriarchal palace and showing readers that we women are complex and charismatic.

Best Romance Hero

🏆The Winner: Dropout by Jamie Schlosser

What does it take to get this distinction? I'm looking for a few good men! (See what I did there with that little play on the series this hero originates from?😉) Well actually I'm looking for a hot, sexy, smart, swoon-worthy man in every romance book I read. Sometimes I find more than one in a story (*wink*wink* The God Pack) and sometimes I have to look a little harder to find the prince underneath the package (*cough*cough* Paging Mr. Crown). All the guys on this list are worthy of book boyfriend status. But the stand-up guy here is James Peabody Johnson! 👋Wave to him there on the cover, looking all sexy like leaning against his trophy. If I told you all the ways that Jimmy made my heart flutter, well I'd be giving away his whole story. Shucks! So let me just say that he came through in scenes and scenarios where many fictional men before him have failed.

Best Menage Romance and  
Best Menage Couple Romantic Unit

🏆The Winner: The Hard Way by Annika Martin

What does it take to get this distinction? Well one thing wasn’t hard…actually there were three hard….opps I’m getting sidetracked by the kinky bank robbers and their hard ways. So what I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t hard to pick a winner for this category. I haven't read another menage yet that delivers such hot and lovable characters as these, yet alone delivers the romantic factor equally. So whether you love a good foursome or simply want to lose your menage virginity (fictionally speaking that is), this is the series to do it with.😉

Best Romantic Suspense

🏆The Winner: Beautiful Beast by Aubrey Irons

What does it take to get this distinction? In the best romantic suspense category, I need a read that keeps me turning pages for answers just as much as I'm sucked into the pages for the couple and their chemistry. This story completely delivered and more. I wanted to know what happened in their past; I wanted to know where they were going in the future. The characters were layered and gripping, the sex scenes were hot, and the ending was absolutely swoon-worthy. You can't imagine how it's all going to work out, but take a spin on this dark ride and find out.
 

Best RomCom

🏆The Winner (s): 
1st Place🥇Untamable by Jamie Schlosser
2nd Place🥈 One Flight Stand by Kim Linwood 
3rd Place🥉 A tie! The Hard Way by Annika Martin, Her Bodyguard by Sabrina Paige, and  Dropout by Jamie Schlosser. 

What does it take to get this distinction? Hmm, are you sensing a little deja vu? Turns out 5 out of the 6 books on the list this year are also romantic comedies. Technically, I don't think Dropout is categorized as one, but Sweatpea and Grandma gave me a lot of chuckles. And that's how this award was measured...by how much I laughed. Hands down, Untamable had me laughing more than any book I've read in a long time. But the other four are also good for a giggle and a smile on your face.

Best Holiday Romance 

🏆The Winner: Sordid Games by Elizabeth Kelly

 What does it take to get this distinction? Sweet, sexy, safe, and puts a smile on my face! It's a simple criteria. If it's a holiday romance, I expect feel-good all the way through. And this one totally came through from the main couple along with all the hilarious supporting characters. You can find it in the Dirty It Up anthology or now on Amazon.

Best Romance Book

🏆The Winner (s): A tie! ALL OF THEM!!!

What are you waiting for? Go 1-click.... 

 (in alphabetical order by title)

Beautiful Beast  
by Aubrey Irons

He's the brooding, broken bad boy; she's the girl next door who's tired of taking his shit! His plan is devious and his limits have no bounds.

“‘I was talking about making you come all over my fingers and then licking it off while you tongue my balls. Who said anything about romance.’”

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU 
 BOOK REVIEW w/CHARACTER FEATURE
 
Dropout  
by Jamie Schlosser

He's flunking out of college. She's a loner making music. They have one thing in common to bring them together: his grandmother! It's a small town where life is simple and little birds have a lot of substance. 

“And when she fell asleep, her ear was right over my heart—the heart that was becoming a little less mine and a little more hers every day.”

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU 
 BOOK REVIEW w/CHARACTER FEATURE

The Hard Way  
by Annika Martin

She's the teller they took hostage. They're the bank robbers who indulge her every fucking-g fantasy. Now they have a detective agency, and they're hot on the trail of the culprit who is framing her sheep rearing sisters.

“They were coordinating, of course. This is what you got from seasoned criminals fucking and disciplining you—wicked coordination.”

 AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU/B&N

 BOOK REVIEW

Her Bodyguard  

by Sabrina Paige

He's her ex-military bodyguard; she's the wild and reckless princess. She might just wrap him around her privileged finger...if she doesn't bring him to his knees first. Or he doesn't put her over his.

“‘Well, father, I would curtsy, but you see, I'm afraid I'd fall over, since my hands are cuffed behind my back.’”

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU 

BOOK REVIEW 

One Flight Stand 
by Kim Linwood

She's the mob boss's daughter. He's the sexy mystery man from her transatlantic flight. He's also in the mob...and the brother of the man she's being summoned home to marry. It's not all one big happy "family," but there is a baby on the way! 

“She could’ve raised hell, but instead she’s floating down the aisle like an angel in a dress that puts me in a mood to be a devil.”

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU / B&N
 BOOK REVIEW w/CHARACTER FEATURE

Untamable 
by Jamie Schlosser

She's the crazy cat lady. He's the pussy tamer. With 9 misbehavin' felines to wrangle, he's got his hands full. And she has plans for the other parts of him!

“Her scream echoed off the wall, and a roar left me as my balls drew up tight, blinding pleasure slamming through my body.”

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU 
 BOOK REVIEW



Missed the Previous Years' Lists? Have No Fear; They're Right Here:
2016

2015

2014

REVIEW/RELEASE BLITZ: Of Smoke & Cinnamon: A Christmas Story by Ace Gray

Genre: Holiday Second Chance Romance

~Blurb~

Camilla Collins hasn't gone home in thirteen years. As much as she loves her family, their tiny hometown in the folds of the Colorado mountains holds too many memories. Memories of a life barely lived and a love barely realized. No matter how she thrives, AJ Jenkins is the man she compares all others too. He just so happens to be the one that broke her heart. Seeing him, seeing the life she might have had with him, has been a very convincing reason to celebrate the holidays in the Pacific Northwest, happy in the rain instead
of the snow.

AJ Jenkins isn't exactly bitter and frigid. It's the below freezing temperatures, the knee deep snow, and the death of his chronically ill father dragging him down. That is until Cam Collins finally comes home for Christmas. After thirteen years, he'd almost given up on seeing her. And was incredibly happy about it. But thirteen is unlucky for a reason, and apparently that reason is still a klutzy, gorgeous, living memory determined to poke holes in his barely hanging on heart with death defying stilettos.

GOODREADS

~Book Review~

3.75 Stars

Guilted into coming home for Christmas and into attending an informal class reunion, Camilla Collins can’t ignore the town or the boy she left behind any longer. Both she and AJ Jenkins are convinced the other one broke his/her heart thirteen years ago.

“‘Because you were young, because you were both foolish and made mistakes. But the world is built on forgiveness…You were young. But now, you’re not. The only reason things stay broken is because you let them.’”

The relationship development in this story is very solid. There’s no insta-love or insta-lust. Their history is divulged and developed well, and it wasn’t hard to believe how attached they were to each other.

“Our lips are back against each other, tracing the trails they both know too well and have to learn all over again.”

AJ was a good guy, a great catch. He wasn’t a jerk or a manwhore. He was hurting but once he realized his true feelings, he was all in. Cam was the one for him and the one he never got over.

Cam was okay. She was independent in the sense that she made a prosperous career for herself, but she was so over the top clumsy.

Things I didn’t understand about Cam:

#1 Why she was so intent on proving herself a different person to her old classmates when it seems like she had a pretty good high school life that included a caring high school sweetheart.

#2 Why in the hell this woman walked around in stilettos in the snow!?

Told via Cam and AJ’s alternating first person POV, there’s often more narration/description than dialogue. The writing is a bit flowery in places, but the use of sensory details in the writing works well for the Christmas mood and theme. There are even some drink recipes at the end.  The plot incorporates elements of the holiday season well; it’s not just a romance set at Christmas time.

What dropped the story below 4 stars for me was the point where Cam and AJ should have been coming to some kind of solution, but instead they just created their own personal (and unnecessary) angst, causing the story to drag. I wanted to smack them both upside the head to knock some sense into them. They were tormenting themselves for no valid reason alongside lousy logic like two dumbasses (Trigg’s choice of word but I couldn’t agree more!) In no way were they thinking like two grown adult 31 year olds. Thank god for Trigg who had more sense than the two of them combined.

On that note, while it’s a sweet romance, it also focuses heavily on internal drama as the pair try to figure out where things went wrong the first time while avoiding having an intelligent conversation about the future in the present. After a point, that was just plain out frustrating.

This can be read as a standalone, but there’s another story releasing next Christmas.

99c for a limited time

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Free in Kindle Unlimited

~Excerpt~

Barely behind me, Cam is bent over the pool table, angling at a difficult shot. Those painted on jeans accentuate curves I don’t remember her having. Curves I want to paw. Then there’s the mysterious tattoo. It cuts across cream colored skin and I want to lick it—lick her—despite everything between us.
To make matters worse, she makes the near-impossible shot. The Cam Collins I know is three things: uncoordinated, callous and the world’s worst pool player. I’d had to help her with every shot she ever took, my body wrapped completely around hers, my hands guiding her every movement. Almost every time she’d look over at me rather than the ball.

But she’s well on her way to running the table.

How long has she had these skills? Did she develop them because I wasn’t there? My heart twists at the thought.

Or, worse, could she always do this, her mind so accustomed to angles and trajectories, but wanted my hands on her?

Fuck.

I don’t know why I’ve thought of the possibility, but it’s the most dangerous one yet because it sucks me back to that warm summer night when we’d played the best game of pool of my life. I’d helped her with each shot. She’d wiggled her ass up against my crotch too many times to count. Just when I thought I was going to have to take her home then jerk off, she’d grabbed my hand and pulled me out to the 13th green behind Molly Merithew’s house.

Crickets chirped, punctuating her labored breathing. There was the slightest warm breeze tickling my skin. I never asked if it was the breeze or me that peaked her nipples when she shimmied out of her white eyelet linen top. I couldn’t really ask anything as Cam stripped naked behind the willow trees and let me have her for the first time, bathed in moonlight. When we snuggled under the stars she wore nothing but my flannel.

I never got that shirt back. I’d sworn off anything remotely related to vanilla, too—that’s what Cam tasted like.

Shit.

That’s what the hidden taste in the bourbon was.

Fuck pool. Fuck this delicious bourbon. And fuck Cam Collins. 

Ace Gray is a self-proclaimed troublemaker and connoisseur of both the good life and fairy tales. After a life-long love affair with books, she undertook writing the novel she wanted to read, which culminated in her first release STRICTLY BUSINESS and followed with, well, quite a few more. When she’s not writing, she works in craft beer. Originally a small town, Colorado girl, she now loves rainy days, shellac manicures, coffee shops and bourbon—all of which are  bountiful in her adopted home of Portland, OR where she runs amok with her chef husband and husky pup.

FACEBOOK  INSTAGRAM  TWITTER   BOOK + MAIN

REVIEW/RELEASE BLITZ: Jingle My Balls by Jordan Marie & Jenika Snow

~Blurb~

 My firm has been hired to make sure Holly gets her biggest Christmas wish.

The rules are simple: 

Seduction and fantasy, and absolutely no sex.

But, the moment I get a look at the delicious redhead all rules go out the window faster than Santa’s sleigh on Christmas night.

I shouldn’t touch her, but it is the season of giving, after all.

And I really want to give Holly a night we both will never forget.

The problem is, once she wraps that sweet little tongue on my candy cane,

I want much more than just one night.

Warning: Welcome to Jenika and Jordan’s Hot-Bite Christmas where the packages are big, the stockings are definitely hung, and snow isn’t the only thing that gets plowed. We’ve decided you’ve been good this year, so pull up a chair and enjoy a quick, dirty little cup of Christmas Cheer.

GOODREADS

~Book Review~

2.75 Stars

Holly Kline’s having one of those bad shopping days. Nick Jones runs a fantasy business and even I’m not quite sure how or why he mixes up his clients.  The set up was weak, making it feel rather bizarre. There’s no build-up or background which translates into zero chance to connect with the characters. The first half plays out like a bad Christmas porn, eye-roll worthy monologue and corny dialogue included. 

Forget the guy on the cover because Nick is described as having gray in his real beard. How old is this guy??? I questioned his age at several points. 

There’s some OM drama which seems inserted only because there isn’t much else of a story here.  I’d venture a guess it’s supposed to make Nick appear alpha, but he sounds immature and not how a successful businessman would really respond. The forced alpha persona turns creepy when Nick spanks Holly in response to a very valid question she asks. That scene just wasn’t cool. It was demeaning given the circumstances. Too bad Holly didn’t have more of a backbone. 

All in all, this isn’t romance. It’s Christmas erotica with some brief clichéd drama tossed in the middle. Tacking on a HEA epilogue doesn’t make it romance.  Told via their alternating dual first person POV, these two are never shown having an actual normal or meaningful conversation together. So if choosing this novella for your own stocking this season and to avoid buyer’s regret, just know what you’re getting and what you’re not. 

AMAZON 

~Excerpt~

 Holly
If I hear one more Christmas carol, I’m going to hurl. That’s it. I hate this time of year. It’s cold, it’s miserable, and people are just plain rude. I tried Christmas shopping today—I really did. Fifteen minutes in the store with holiday music playing in the background, people pushing and shoving, getting mowed down by shopping carts, and I was done.

Which is why I’m limping on the sidewalk, with not one shopping bag to show for my trouble. Some woman inside the department store ran into me with her cart. She didn’t apologize; she just huffed, like I was the one who caused the accident.

I find a bench close to the park and sit down to inspect the damage. I bend down to look at the back of my leg and wince at what I see. My stocking is torn and there are these gigantic runs in the nylon going up my leg. The heel of my foot is bloody and has been ripped open at the exact spot the back of my Jimmy Choos slide against. My favorite pair of heels didn’t exactly escape hell either. They’re scuffed and have serious damage. If I had it to do over I wouldn’t have walked away. I would have given that lady a dirty look and thrown my shoe at her before giving her the finger.

“Looks like you’ve been trampled by Santa’s reindeers,” a deep voice says to my right. I turn and look at him and everything in me stills. Chills run down my back and the voice seems to vibrate in the very center of me, sending instant awareness through me and making my body hum with need. Which is unusual for two reasons. One, I’ve been on a break from relationships and men in general for the last five years. My last breakup was not good—so not good that the thought of trusting another male scares the hell out of me. The last and most obvious reason is the one that takes precedence, however. I don’t know this man. I don’t know him at all and worse… He’s wearing a Santa outfit.

Great, I’ve reeled in a nut job.

“Do I know you?” I sound like a cranky old bitch right now, but I’m not in the mood for some guy dressed up to try and get me in the holiday spirit, not matter how good looking he is.

“I’m Santa, can’t you tell?” he says, drolly.

I rest my back against the bench and look at the stranger, feeling my eyebrows lift up in sarcastic disbelief. Yeah, he’s wearing a Santa suit, a cheesy red one that looks like it’s made out of crushed velvet and that’s trimmed in white fake fur. I suppose that’s not strange; ‘tis the season and all that. What doesn’t fit the part, however, is when he yanks off the beard and hat and pulls off the white gloves, I can see that his large, masculine hands are covered in ink.

I draw my attention back to his face. Now that the fake beard is gone I see he’s sporting a black beard with a bit of gray sprinkled in. Dark, almost obsidian eyes stare down at me. They look intense, mocking and yet at the same time somehow bored with life. He pulls out a cigarette and then lights it, cupping his hand against the cool New York wind.

“I don’t think Santa is supposed to smoke,” I tell him.

“Sweetheart, Santa does a lot he’s not supposed to do,” he smirks and something about that look on his face makes my body heat.

“Whatever. You should make sure your boss doesn’t see you do that,” I mutter, annoyed because he’s making my traitorous body react when it shouldn’t.

“Santa has no boss.”

“God, can you drop the act? I’ve about had it with Christmas and the last thing I want to do is hear you tell me how you spend your days on the North Pole playing with your reindeer,” I huff.

“I make the elves stroke my reindeer horns actually,” he smirks. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“You mean besides being mowed over by a woman with a cart and ruining a pair of pantyhose and my favorite pair of heels?”

“Who was she? I’ll put her on the naughty list,” he asks and at this point I just shake my head.

Who is this guy?

“Will you give it a… What are you doing?” I feel my eyes grow big as I watch him get down on his haunches in front of me.

“I thought that was rather obvious. I’m checking your injury out,” he murmurs, ignoring my protest and pulling my leg up into his lap—despite me trying to pull it away.

I brace myself on the bench, because if I don’t, I’m going to end up falling to the ground. I try to kick at him, but he holds my leg firmly, not allowing the movement.

“Will you stop? I don’t know you! And besides that, this dress is too short. You’ll have me flashing half of New York.” My voice has risen by this point.

“Stop being dramatic. My body is completely blocking you.” He dismisses my objection and then he looks at me—really looks at me. His eyes bore into mine, and his hand on my leg becomes tighter, almost punishing in his hold. “Are you wearing panties?” he asks.

My body jerks in reaction. I should be repulsed. In fact, I should be panicking that a man I don’t know, a man dressed in a Santa suit, with a cigarette trapped between his lips and his big—huge really—ink-covered hand wrapped around my leg, is asking me if I’m wearing panties. What I should not be is turned on. And, if my damp panties are any indication… I am definitely turned on.

“You did not just ask that!” I cry out, desperately trying to pull away from him. I can’t be turned on by a stranger—a very weird, sexy as sin stranger. I cannot be talking about my panties with said stranger and most of all, I can’t spread my legs a little wider for him.

“Black… nice,” he says almost to himself, obviously having looked at my panties. I’m not sure how much he can see because of my pantyhose, but despite it all I feel my face heat, even though the air has a wintery chill to it. “Damn, honey, I’d say the shopping cart won your war,” he mumbles around his cigarette, yet somehow managing to make each word clear.

“Will you let go of my leg please?” I growl out, unable to pull away from his firm grip. I’m thinking that what I thought might be padding to fill out the Santa suit is actually just plain muscle. If his hands are anything to go by, he’s huge.

What is it they say about large hands again?

I squirm uncomfortably. I really shouldn’t be thinking about that at all. 

~About the Authors~

USA Today Best Selling Author Jordan Marie, is just a simple small town country girl who is haunted by Alpha Men who talk in her head 24 hours a day. She currently has 14 books out including 2 that she wrote under the pen name Baylee Rose. She likes to create a book that takes you on an emotional journey whether tears, laughter (or both) or just steamy hot fun (or all 3). She loves to connect with readers and interacting with them through social media, signings or even old fashioned email.

Twitter  Facebook  Web Goodreads  Amazon

Jenika Snow is a USA Today Bestselling Author that lives in the northwest with her husband and their two daughters. Before she started writing full-time she worked as a nurse.

Twitter  Facebook  Web  Goodreads  Amazon

COVER REVEAL: Stud in the Stacks by Pippa Grant

 Release Date: January 5, 2018

~Blurb~

When it comes to women, I know what they want. And all day long, I give it to them. Dark, broody, and sexy? You got it. Need to laugh? I’m your guy. Desperate for something to put you in the mood? You’ve come to the right place, kitten.

Every morning when my library opens, there’s a line around the block, the ladies flocking to me in need of their next book boyfriend. I’m that dude. The one who knows his way around the romance section. And if you think that hasn’t gotten me plenty of action over the years, you’d be wrong.

But I made a slight miscalculation at work, and now my reputation has my job in danger. If I can’t prove to my boss that I’m more than a playboy who recommends romance in the hopes of getting some hanky panky in the stacks, I’m headed for the unemployment line.

Enter Parker Elliott. She rocks a mean guitar, she has no idea how sexy she is, and she’s in need of a temporary fake boyfriend.

Best of all? She doesn’t have a library card. I couldn’t have found a better fake fiancée if I’d written her myself.

Stud in the Stacks is 55,000 sexy, hilarious, sometimes embarrassing words, complete with tacos, romance novel love, unicorn parties, and no cheating or cliffhangers.

 

GOODREADS 

~Pre-order~

 Amazon US I Amazon CA I Amazon UK