Saturday, March 24, 2012

Drinking and Winning Givewaway Hop (US/INT), 3/24 - 3/28 2012

Posted by Unknown at 12:00 AM 4 comments
drinking and winning giveaway hop

Hello and welcome to the Drinking and Winning Giveaway Hop hosted by Reading Romances!!
Bona Fide Reflections is giving away a $10 gift certificate to B&N, Amazon, or the Book Depository. Please complete the Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway.

In honor of celebrating Reading Romances Pre-Party Blogiversary, I wanted to share my favorite drink with you all - a Mexican Martini. It goes great with reading any romance book out there. I highly recommend it.  

Mexican Martini
1 serving
2 oz tequila
1 splash Sprite® soda
Pour all ingredients into a large cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a large cocktail/martini glass (8+ ounces) with a salt rim. Add two olives on a spear, and serve.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

18 & Over Giveaway Hop, March 22 - 24, 2012

Posted by Unknown at 12:00 AM 0 comments
Photobucket

Welcome to the 18 & Over Giveaway Hop hosted by
Bitten By Paranormal Romance and Get Naughty Between the Stacks

Bona Fide Reflections is giving away:
Eternal Rider OR Immortal Rider by Larissa Ione

Please complete the Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway.  Good Luck!



Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione

Book Blurb:

They are here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him. 

Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can't-or won't-understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman's safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara's life.






Immortal Rider by Larissa Ione

Book Blurb:
Sexy, powerful, and immortal, Limos is on a crash course with destiny. She’s been marked as Satan’s bride and her jealous fiancĂ© wants her all to himself. The only way this Horseman can keep herself—and everyone else—safe is to keep her distance. But not even Limos can save herself from the secrets she’s kept . . . or resist the seductive allure of one very brave human. 

Arik Wagner knows the saying “love hurts” better than most, yet he never thought stealing a kiss from Limos would land him in Hell. Literally. It takes all his military training to survive the demon torture, but once he’s topside, Arik realizes that the agony has just begun. With the Apocalypse looming and Satan demanding his bride, will Arik and Limos surrender to the desire smoldering between them? Or will giving in to their passion unleash hell on earth?


Monday, March 19, 2012

Guest Review: The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst

Posted by Unknown at 12:00 AM 4 comments
Bona Fide Reflections is proud to have Saskia 
(a.k.a. _yay_) from Book That Thing do a guest review on:

The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst







Alexa is the kind of daughter who’d do anything to help her parents, even if it meant making a deal with the devil. Not literally – duh, but Nicholas Ryan is no angel by any means. He needs a wife for a year to fulfil the terms of his late, meddling uncle’s will. The bastard tries to mess with him even from the grave! Nick is Alexa’s only option, and she happens to be in desperate need for some cash. Will she be able to handle this blast from the past for such a long period of time? He’s a non-believer for crying out loud. Love, marriage, family? These concepts simply don’t exist in his world. Business is Nick’s life. That is, until Alexa starts pushing his buttons.


It doesn’t happen often that one stumbles upon a book-mention on Facebook, decides to buy it on a whim, and ends up loving everything about the story. To me, it did! Sit down my fellow book lovers and prepare yourselves, I’m about to praise the heck out of this contemporary romance. 

The cover is insanely beautiful, wouldn’t you agree?! In fact, I didn’t find anything to complain about the book as a whole. The writing was superb. Poignant, funny, charming, and most of all...easily digestible (yummm). Huh??? Enjoyable, smooth, genre-appropriate. Get it? :-) I plowed through the book in record time; turning page after page after page. Awesome! I laughed, sniffled (Dear Kleenex, I love you. Best wishes!), and glared at the hero for being an idiot more than once. 

Alexa’s and Nick’s interaction - dialogue, gestures or just a meaning-laden look - was unbelievably hilarious at times, yet never lost its sense of seriousness. I haven’t giggled my way through a contemporary romance like this in quite a while. However, the author maintained a fair balance of humour and distress. She had to, because both hero and heroine had issues to deal with. Especially Nick, who needed to learn to take risks; be carefree at last. He had a very controlling personality. Now and then I glimpsed a bit of Christian Grey in him (Fifty Shades series by E L James). Needless to say I love these books. Nick’s upbringing left him void of any feelings. Even worse, he considered most emotions perturbing. Bothersome! There’d be no point in spontaneous expressions of love or happiness. I felt beyond bad for him. Why couldn’t I be the one to save him? I definitely got my bad boy fix. Nick was set in his ways and didn’t plan on changing anything about them. I shouldn’t have been so darn happy about an emotionally crippled hero *blushingscarlett*. 

Thankfully, Alexa pulled the rug out from under his feet simply by being her bubbly, life-loving self. What a treat it was to sit back and watch Nick lose control for once. Let’s just say that she drove him batshit crazy. That feeling of helplessness was foreign to him, so it wasn’t really a surprise that he frequently lashed out at her in an attempt to regain his composure. He talked himself into believing the worst of her. My reaction to that was a condescending headshake. You poor, delusional guy – she’s the one for you, dummy! Don’t get me wrong, he might have acted like a petulant child, but considering his past, it was with good reason. I was attracted to him from the start and it didn’t take me long to connect with the character on a much deeper level. Not despite, but because of his dark outlook on....everything but work. 

I really liked Alexa as well. A truly lovable person, one would be lucky to have as a friend. Don’t be fooled by your first impression of her. I thought her a bit pathetic in a cute way, but soon learned how strong of a person she really is. No pushover; a rather feisty one. She got right in Nick’s face about his too reasonable behaviour. Her personality and their shared past probably were the only reasons why Nick let himself get close to her in the first place. The author got the absolute most out of this genre and wrote a story that will be a permanent fixture on my shelf (okay, in my Kindle collection). 

Along with her best friend Maggie (who reminded me an awful lot of my bestie), the secondary characters - Alexa’s big family - rocked my socks off. I didn’t want to say goodbye to them, that’s how much I came to loved them. They, of course, overwhelmed Nick. He was sooo uncomfortable around them at first. After a lifetime of disappointments I had to cut him some slack. Still, I couldn’t wait for that light bulb to go off in his head. A beautiful moment. 



A contemporary romance you will love. Intense and sweet (a little corny in the end, but who cares – I was a junky in crack-heaven)! Glass of wine. Couch. Blanket. Ready? Happy reading! 5 stars to The  Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst.



~~ Beware of Spoilers!
A few of my favorite quotes for those of you who are interested:
° “Men get plenty out of marriage! – Like what? – Steady sex and companionship. – After six months the headaches start and you bore each other to tears.”
° “You’ll just have to get your kicks out of this proper business marriage and build your buildings. She paused. Get it?”
° “Maggie says you have a fish. – The remark rewarded her with a chilling look. Yes – What’s his name? – Fish.”
° “How many times had he craved an actual beating or a punishment from his father instead of neglect?”
° “Aggravated, he dragged his fingers over his face and wondered how she made him lose it over a Monopoly game that never happened.”

Rating for the the book: