#Guest post & #Review WINNING STREAK by @KatieKenyhercz

Hello Divettes!

I'm back again with a guest post and review of Winning Streak by the wonderful and talented Katie Kenyhercz!

As the new head of public relations for the Las Vegas Sinners hockey team, Saralynn Reese wants to leave behind the frivolity of her popular girl image. Unfortunately, her first big assignment is to clean up the media messes of the team's assistant general manager, Madden Vaughn. He's flirty, impulsive, and self-centered; he also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. Could there be more to Madden under the Ralph Lauren surface?

Having struggled with a gambling addiction since his early twenties, Madden's finally moved past it and into a secure, corporate job working for his sister, the one person who means the world to him. When rumors fly and the team and his family both doubt his word, an unlikely ally pulls him out of his funk with a manicured hand: Saralynn.

He's tired of chasing the same type of unattainable girl, and this up-and-coming publicity dynamo fits that mold perfectly. But she also challenges him and believes in him like no one else. Can they help each other keep their feet on solid ground . . . or will these twin hearts find themselves skating on thin ice?

Rach's Review: 5 out of 5 Divas

Heat level: 3.5/5 

I've got to say, I really loved this book. Now, I admit I might be a tiny bit biased, as I was one of Katie's critique partners way back when on the first book in this series, On the Fly, and I had a good long while to fall in love with Madden in that book! So when Katie told me he was getting his own book, I was ecstatic! And Winning Streak definitely does not disappoint! I loved this book start to finish. Madden and Saralynn both have some serious issues, and the obstacles to their relationship are many and intense. These were both stellarly believable characters and their time together on the page sizzles. This story really touched my heart and gave me some warm fuzzies, in addition to some serious sexual tension that threatened to burn up the pages! Can't recommend this book highly enough. Or the series for that matter. I've always been a bit of a hockey fan, but not hugely into the sport, so don't let the hockey scare you off. This is a wonderful series, and I can't wait to see what's in store next for the Las Vegas Sinners.



From the author:

Winning Streak is an anomaly in the Las Vegas Sinners series because I never intended to write it. I'd planned to have a hockey hero in every book. However, when On the Fly came out, I got a lot of reader feedback asking for Madden's book. They fell in love with Jacey's sweet but hapless brother and wanted more for him. I'd already planned Full Strength, the goalie's story, for book 2, but when it came time for book 3, I put a poll out to my readers. Who did they want first, Madden or Dylan Cole, the rookie turned young captain? Madden was the resounding winner.

I started writing Winning Streak and hit wall after wall. I knew I had to deal with Madden's gambling addiction, but beyond that, I wasn't sure what to do with a non-hockey playing hero. Enter young professional and relationship train wreck, Saralynn Reese, the goalie's younger sister from Full Strength. Saralynn is a former mean girl looking to better herself, and that made her both a challenge and a joy to write. I had to keep her sympathetic and show her depth but still hold onto the snark and a bit of the high maintenance that makes her funny. I had the best time writing her because she is almost nothing like me, which was different from writing Jacey and Allie, my two previous heroines. 

The fun of Winning Streak is that you have two people who are broken in the same amusing way. They were beautiful and shallow for most of their lives (at least that's what most people saw) and now both want to improve. Throwing them together is like the blind leading the blind, but they do learn about themselves through each other, and I love that. Madden's struggling to gain his sister's trust and respect after a gambling relapse years back, and Saralynn's trying to get people to take her seriously by taking charge of the Sinners PR department. Her first assignment is to clean up one of Madden's media messes.

I love the way these two play off of each other, and they both go through some rough growing pains but struggle to do their best.

The 4th Sinners book, Home Ice, is already out, and naturally focuses on young NHL phenom, Dylan Cole, who hits his first ever slump and can't seem to deal. He falls for America's figure skating sweetheart, Lorelai Kelly, who broke her ankle in the last Olympic Games and is struggling to get back on her blades and stay in the spotlight while she moonlights as the star of Sin City on Ice.

The 5th and final book in the Sinners series is Fair Trade, and it will release this December. It follows Grayson Gunn, a player in his early 40s who's looking to retire at the end of the season. He'd played his whole career for his home team out of loyalty but they never made the playoffs, and they mercy trade him to the Sinners for one last chance at the Cup before he hangs up his skates. He's intrigued by the new team assistant physician, Olivia Parker, who had worked for an AHL team before getting the Sinners' offer. They're both recovering from painful divorces and trying to get their bearings in Las Vegas when an unexpected chemistry pulls them together even as they try to stay away.

I still plan to write a collection of short stories catching up with each couple from the series and entitle it What Happens in Vegas because I've had several readers say they wanted to know what happened to everybody. Happy to oblige!

I will be very sad to see this series end :-( But I am so excited that Home Ice is Dylan Cole's story and I can't wait to read it!

Grab your copy of Winning Streak here:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1hvuerP 
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1TpgSco 

Thanks for stopping by today, Katie! It was great to have you.

~ Rach

#New! Summer Fling by MJ Compton #baseball #eroticromance @Comptonplations

Happy Tuesday, all! And happy release day to my friend, MJ Compton, whose sexy sports romance Summer Fling is out today from Loose Id! If you enjoy stories featuring strong heroines and hot athletic heroes, you'll love this one!


Blurb:

Caroline Maplethorpe spent a summer as plaything for a minor league baseball team…and oh, how Win Winston played.

Seven years later, she’s respectable, and he’s in the big leagues. Now that he’s found her again, he still wants her in a major way. But their second-chance relationship attracts too much publicity, and the third member of their long-ago ménage threatens to destroy the respectable life Caroline so carefully reconstructed after that crazy summer.


Excerpt:

This was my life now. Calm. Orderly. Mundane. I had this great Armory Square apartment, I was on speaking terms with my family again, and I had a job I enjoyed. It was enough. 

The intercom buzzed, but I ignored it. Drunks stumbling out of the multitude of bars often amused themselves by annoying the residents. Chandler would have either returned to the café or gone home, and my family always called before they visited me. 

A lone figure lurched into view, shoulders hunched against the cold. Snow swirled around him. He stood under the streetlight, looking up at me. 

Win. 

Our gazes met. I swallowed hard. Just like that, he knew where I lived, and that was not a good thing. He stared at me for what seemed like forever, then ambled away. 

My intercom belched again. I uncurled from my perch and stumbled to the speaker. “Yes?” 

“Carrie Thorpe.” 

I still heard that voice in my dreams. I was going to have to speak to Win eventually. Might as well get it over with. 

I buzzed him in. Then I opened the door and watched him lumber up the dimly lit stairs. 

He was larger than life, filling my doorway with his height and bulk, bringing the cold and the scent of winter with him. 

I didn’t offer to take his coat. “What do you want?” 

His dark eyes glittered in the flickering candlelight. Flakes of snow melted in his black curls. “Carrie Thorpe.” 

“There’s no such person,” I said. 

“No wonder I couldn’t find you.” His deep voice rumbled through me. “I looked, you know. For years. On every form of social media I heard of. But no Carrie Thorpe ever popped up.” 

“She doesn’t exist,” I repeated, not believing him. 

“Caroline Maplethorpe slumming it in Cortland.” His tone was bitter. 

“Caroline Maplethorpe trying not to trade in on her father’s name,” I retorted, stung by his accusation. The truth was far less dramatic. 

Win still had the power to annihilate me, but I’d never let him know how vulnerable he made me. Survival. That was my priority. 

“You’ve done well for yourself,” I said. I’d followed his career to the majors, his injury two seasons ago, and the subsequent surgery that led him to a rehab stint in Syracuse. 

“If you mean better than Flash, then yeah.” 

Flash. Jordan “Flash” Gordon. He’d introduced Win to me, in a manner of speaking. 

“I got called up for three games, and you disappeared,” Win said. “I went a little crazy.” 

“It was time for me to leave. College was starting. The timing had nothing to do with your getting called up.” 

That was the truth. Part of it anyway. 

He stared at me. Through me. He’d always been able to peer into the crevices of my soul. 

“What do you want?” My voice shook. 

The intensity of his gaze never wavered. “I don’t know.” 

That was new. Seven years ago, Win Winston had always known what he wanted. 

“I thought I wanted you, but now you’re telling me you don’t exist.” 

There were many things I could have said. I could have asked if he’d never had a meaningful relationship with another woman, but that would imply he’d found our relationship meaningful. While it was certainly memorable, I doubted it had much meaning for him. 

Didn’t he understand the rules? What we’d had that long-ago summer was a fling. He was a young, good-looking, up-and-coming pitcher, and I was a young, out-of-control, self-destructive girl on the run from emotions I couldn’t handle. I would have done anything to be able to feel.

I did everything I could in order to feel something. Anything.


Purchase Summer Fling from:


Loose Id


Amazon

MJ Compton grew up near Cardiff, New York, a place best known for its giant, which inspired her to create her own fiction.

Although her 30-year career in local television included such highlights as being bitten by a lion, preempting a US President for a college basketball game, giving a three-time world champion boxer a few black eyes, a mention in the Drudge Report, and meeting her husband, MJ never lost her dream of writing her own stories.

MJ still lives in upstate New York with her husband. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Central New York Romance Writers. Music and cooking are two of her passions, and she enjoys baseball and college basketball, but she’s primarily focused on wine . . . and writing.

MJ's website: http://www.comptonplations.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMJCompton

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/comptonplations

Review by Rach & Guest Blog: FULL STRENGTH by @KatieKenyhercz

Hey there everyone,

Welcome back to another wonderful round of Review by Rach! Today we have a special treat, not just a review, but also an excerpt and guest blog from the author, Katie Kenyhercz.

Meet Allie and Shane:

After a bum knee ended her soccer days, Alexandra-Allie-Kallen has dedicated her life to helping injured athletes cope and get back in the game. As the new team sports psychologist of the Las Vegas Sinners, she starts out with just one player, but he's a handful. Goalies are stubborn, and she would know. She's determined to figure him out and return him to the net good as new, especially after she sent her last patient back to the ice too soon. The problem is, she sees so much of herself in Shane, and their chemistry is off the charts. Falling for him isn't in the plan. Is love worth losing her career?

Shane Reese's entire identity has been wrapped up in being a goalie since he was five years old. When he gets a high ankle sprain right before playoffs, he doesn't exactly take it well. After putting his fist through the physical therapy room wall and hitting a few joking teammates, he's ordered to see the new shrink. All he has to do is convince her he's seen the light, and he can get back to defending his team as soon as his ankle heals. The problem is, she sees through him like no one he's ever met, and the more time he spends with her, the less hot he is to get back to the ice. Could something mean more than hockey?






And now for the excerpt: 

Shane ambled down the tunnel to the locker room, half-paying attention to his excited teammates bumping his shoulder, patting his mask, and barking, “Fuckin’ awesome!” Their support meant a lot, but right now, something else meant more. He shed his gear in front of his locker. As soon as he got down to athletic shorts and a t-shirt, he slipped into the quiet hallway.

Adrenaline and emotion carried him to Allie’s office, and when he opened the door, she stumbled forward as if she’d been leaning against it.

“Shane?” A mix of confusion, happiness, and something like regret played on her face. “You were amazing out there. You—”

He scooped her up and swung her around. She gasped and laughed, holding onto his shoulders, and it felt even better than the win. He smiled so hard his cheeks hurt, and when he set her down, he backed her against the door and kissed her. Her lips were soft, warm, and moist. She tasted like cherries, and the citrus-vanilla of her perfume filled his head. Her body stiffened, but she didn’t pull back or push him away. Because his palms rested against her neck, he could feel her pulse trying to outpace a German train. He slid his thumbs lightly along her cheekbones and nudged her nose with his. When their foreheads touched, her lashes fluttered, and her breath rushed warm against his lips. She met his gaze and whispered, “Shane …”

Since peewee hockey, no one had called him anything but Reese at his own request, but God, he couldn’t get enough of the sound of his name from her mouth. In the next second the enormity of what he’d done sunk in, and he took a step back, eyes wide as he tried to get his emotional bearings. “Allie. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—I was so caught up … but I crossed a line. Even though I guess I’m officially not your patient anymore.”

The shock on her face couldn’t hide a trace of pleasure. Her voice came out low and unsteady. “It’s all right. You were just carried away. You’re not my patient now, but you might be in the future, so … we probably shouldn’t make a habit of it.” She smiled the way she did when she wanted to deflect, but the look in her eyes said she wasn’t so sure.

“Yeah.” But neither moved. He couldn’t look away. How were they supposed to pretend this didn’t exist? That it wasn’t important? Apparently, he was pretty good at self-deception, but even with his exceptional skill in denial, he couldn’t wrap his mind around treating Allie like one of the guys.




And now a little more from Kenyhercz on writing and this series: 

Viva Las Vegas

A lot of readers ask how the Sinners' world came to be. It was a long, winding, random road! When I first got the idea for On the Fly about ten years ago, the Sinners started out as a minor league team, the Albany Racers. I set the series in the minors because I had Carter playing and coaching at the same time for the entire book, and that wouldn't fly in the majors. But that version of the book wasn't working, and I knew things had to change.

When in doubt, up the stakes.

I knew I had to put the team in the NHL, and I needed a more exciting backdrop. There have been talks of putting an NHL team in Vegas for years and years, but things never coalesced in real life. It was the perfect choice for me. Las Vegas is its own character and the right place for my guys and gals to get neck-deep in trouble.

Next up, I needed a new coach. I could have made a stock character to blend into the background, but even in the first draft, Nealy was a spunky, intimidating, little lady who would not be ignored. It seemed a shame to waste her hilarity in such a bit role. I gave her the coaching job on a whim one day, and everything fell into place. She was the best fictional accident I've stumbled into. She created controversy for my heroine in the first book, and she is such a gem in Full Strength. Nealy is like an angry, high-pitched Yoda for the guys, and I love her to pieces.

A lot of readers fell in love with Madden in the first book, and he was a happy accident too. Originally, I asked myself how a woman would come to inherit an NHL team, and “only child” was the first explanation that came to mind. If she had a brother, the team probably would have went to him. Light bulb moment. What if she did have a brother but got the team anyway? That added drama and backstory and made things more interesting.

My favorite elements in the Sinners' world weren't originally planned, and that's part of the magic of writing. If you start spinning an idea, it takes on a life of its own and tells you how it's supposed to pan out. Check out Full Strength, and look for Madden's book, Winning Streak next year!

Rach's Review: 5 out of 5 Divas

Well what can I say? Katie did it again! I loved On The Fly the first book in the Las Vegas Sinners series. It was fantastic, and sometimes sequels can disappoint. Totally not the case with Full Strength. Once again, she brought the characters to life, making us feel for them, root for them, and smile when they got their happily ever after. :-) I loved it. These books are sweet, sexy, funny, and endearing. Definitely a great read and one you should pick up! 


Thanks so much for stopping by Katie, it was fun to have you.