DOWN THE TBR HOLE #40

Down the TBR Hole was originally created by Lost in a Story! The point of it is to help cull your reading lists down, or maybe push higher anticipated releases up on your TBR! And maybe you all can help me along the way, and tell me if you’ve loved or hated any of these!

How it works:
➽ Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
➽ Order on ascending date added.
➽ Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books - I do about 15-20 because my list is HUGE
➽ Read the synopses of the books
➽ Decide: keep it or should it go?

FULL HEARTS SERIES BOX SET by MJ Summers

BREAK IN TWO (FULL HEARTS BOOK 1)
Thirty-one-year-old Claire Hatley is running from Seattle having just discovered that her live-in boyfriend has traded her in for a twenty-two-year-old hostess. Devastated and alone Claire must make a fresh start. She answers an ad for a chef at a guest ranch just outside Colorado Springs and finds herself face to face with Cole Mitchell, quite possibly the hottest man to ever ride a horse. Common sense tells them to stay away from each other, but their attraction is not to be denied. He gives her a glimpse of what love should be, but just as she starts to trust him, the past comes back to tear them apart.

Join Claire and Cole as they embark on the stormy love affair of a lifetime.

DON'T LET GO (FULL HEARTS NOVELLA 1.5)
Readers fell in love with Ben and Alicia’s picture-perfect marriage in BREAK IN TWO, but, for these two, the road to a happy ending hasn’t always been smooth. DON'T LET GO is a sweet, sexy short read and is best enjoyed after BREAK IN TWO and before BREAKING LOVE.

BREAKING LOVE (FULL HEARTS BOOK 2)
Luc Chevalier is a satisfied man – or so he thinks. His businesses are thriving, he has all the excitement, money and beautiful women any man could want. He dines at the best restaurants and stays at the most luxurious hotels as he makes his way around the globe. So why does he suddenly find himself so restless?
Megan Sullivan is a single mom with a rather ordinary life. She is comfortable with things just the way they are. She has a six-year-old son, Elliott, a cozy house in Boulder, Colorado, and a photography business to put food on the table. Her ex lives hours away in Florida, providing enough space for him to feed his drug addiction without exposing Elliott to his father's illness. Megan is on her own, and she intends to keep it that way.

44 CHAPTERS ABOUT 4 MEN by BB Easton

School psychologists aren’t supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered “unethical” and “a fireable offense.” Lucky for you, ethics was never my strong suit.

After spending years trying to spice up my sex life, I gave up and took to my journal. Perhaps my gorgeous, cold, number crunching husband simply wasn’t capable of the kind of passion I’d come to expect. After all, my ex-boyfriends—a skinhead turned US Marine turned motorcycle club outlaw, a baby-faced punk rocker out on parole, and a heavy-metal bass player—were every bit as tattooed and testosterone-fueled as the leading men in my favorite romance novels. If I couldn’t have that kind of passion again in real life, I could at least write about it. Right? Nobody had to know. It would be my little secret.

Well, guess what? My husband read that shit.

And guess what else? He upped his fucking game.

Drunk with power and under the dubious advisement of my best friend and colleague, I began testing the limits—crafting journal entries specifically designed to manipulate Ken’s behavior. For the most part, he responded beautifully…except when he didn’t.

SUMMER MAIDEN: PERSEPHONE'S FALL by Eva Darcy

A dark erotic retelling of the story of Persephone and Hades.

Someday, Kore will become Persephone, Dread Queen of the Underworld. For today, she is a summer maiden, coming into the ripe flower of her womanhood, innocently flirting with lighthearted gods like Apollo and Hermes, and exploring her new powers of seduction. But a darker god has his eyes on the beautiful young goddess, and his desires are far from innocent.

This BDSM-flavored novella reimagines the classic Greek myth exactly as it is traditionally told—with her famed abduction and rape—but it isn't the tale you think you know.

Instead it turns the myth around, illuminating the forbidden desires and conflicted loyalties that may have really driven that tragic story, and turning it into one of seduction, power and—ultimately—love.

Goodreads | Amazon

RESURRECTING PHOENIX by Isabel Lucero

Anniversaries are usually occasions worth celebrating, but when your fourth wedding anniversary is also the first anniversary of your husband’s death, you’ll only want to drink your sorrows away. And that’s exactly what Phoenix Nightingale does.

In the small town of Breckshire Wyoming, everybody knows everybody, so when Evan Tyler walks into the same bar she’s drowning her grief in, Phoenix knows that he’s new in town. What she doesn’t know is that he’s just moved in a few houses down from her and is about to try his hardest to break through the wall she’s had up for a year.
Phoenix has experienced a tragedy that nobody ever wants to experience. In the year following her husband’s death, she’s had what her parent’s considered embarrassing public meltdowns, and lost some friends along with her career. Just as she feels she’s at her very lowest, Evan barges into her life, forcing her to get out of the house and look at life a little differently.
He vows to help her, encouraging her to rise from the ashes and live once again. Evan doesn’t know that just by being in her life, he’s bound to send her into a tailspin, because both of them are keeping things from each other, and Phoenix may not be strong enough to handle what she finds out.
Will she pull him into the dark with her, or will he be able to resurrect Phoenix, freeing her from the depths of her depression, and show her that surviving isn’t the same as living?

CHARMING YOU by Kris Jayne

Can she trust the charm of an ambitious man?

Micky Llewellyn has trusted men before with disastrous results. Now, she’s focused on her career, her friends, and making sure she doesn’t let another charming man lie to her and break her heart.

Nick Halden’s life has unfolded according to plan. He’s on track to a partnership at one of Dallas’ premier law firms, and he’s marrying a woman who has the beauty, smarts, and connections to be the perfect wife. Or he thought he was.

Fate and a dead car battery throw Micky and Nick together, forcing them to question what they want. Nick’s charm makes Micky’s heart pound with desire and her gut twist with mistrust. Micky’s fire awakens a passion in Nick that flips his world upside down. With his personal and professional lives colliding in chaos, Nick has one way to make sure he gets what he wants, but it means betraying the woman he craves.

In their struggle to balance love and ambition, Micky and Nick will have to decide what they want and at what cost before they lose the one thing that matters.

DARKNESS WITHIN by Isabel Lucero

The moment it happens, everything in me changes.

Imagine somebody was able to fit inside of your body. Their arms are the same length as yours. You’re both the same height. Everything is exactly the same. Now imagine that person not being a person at all. That thing inside of you is a shadow. Darkness. A silhouette of you, only living on the inside of your body. It doesn’t have a conscious. It doesn’t have a heart. Nothing within that darkness is remotely human. Its only goal is to take over your body. It fights against your muscles. It tries breaking through the skin. It wants to replace you. That’s what it feels like when the darkness that lives inside me starts trying to get out.

I feel it happening. The pressure builds. My skin prickles. And the only thing that tames it, getting it back to resting peacefully inside me, is to unleash it. I have to let it wreak havoc, and I quite enjoy the mayhem.

Analeigh Price comes into my life and does the one thing I hate; question me about my past. She can pretend she wants to get to know me all she wants, but she’s not ready for the truth. I won’t become a better person for her, because I am who I am. She can't fix me, because my wounds are unfixable.

You see, I’m not like everybody else. Oh, no. I’m different. My humanity was stripped from me long ago, and those who are responsible are about to be paid a visit. You’ve never heard a story like mine, because I’m unlike anyone you’ve ever met. I’m no hero. I’m the guy you don’t want to piss off, because once the darkness within me is unleashed, it’ll be too late to get away.

What’s my name? It’s Donovan. Donovan James. But the darkness is taking over, and it’s only good at one thing, so I must go.

Release + Review ➤ HIDE YOUR CRAZY by Lani Lynn Vale

I’m kind of a lady, but definitely more of a weirdo.

Hearing the woman at the table behind him say that to her friend should’ve turned Logan Gibbs off.

It doesn’t. In all honesty, it only makes him listen harder.

He’s had enough weird in his life to last a lifetime. The last thing his complicated life needs is a woman in it who has no clue what color you get when you mix yellow and blue together.

Yet, her obvious blonde moments aren’t enough to deter him. Nor is her lack of finger-painting skills.

I’m a cop, not a miracle worker.

Release + Review ➤ MALUM PART 2 by Amo Jones

Malum: Part 2 (The Elite King's Club book 5), a dark and emotional romance by Amo Jones, is NOW LIVE!

Welcome to a story about a brotherhood of mayhem and destruction and the one girl who could topple a kingdom. The Elite Kings are up to their same old tricks - secrets and games - and Tillie offers herself up as tribute. Willing or not, she's playing and she hopes to win. Nate may be her one true love, but forgiving him and letting him back into her heart won't be easy. And although we find out the whys of so many WTH moments, new facts arise, making me wonder what happens next.