Top Picks 11th - 17th Nov

The Top Picks is a post that we do here on a Sunday which highlights the books released in the forthcoming week that we like the look of. These could be books we've been lucky enough to read, books from authors we love or just books we like the blurb of. We can't hope to find all the books released, so feel free to add any thing we've missed in the comments section.

This week, I was quite happy to see how many cheaper reads are released. There are a collection of Harlequin escape short reads being released for £0.64p. They are only about 40 pages, but this seems a perfect bite sized story for before bed. There is also a release by the wonderful Dee Carney and a novella from Jeaniene Frost (not Cat and Bones!!) 

This weeks Tops Picks

Enter the dark realm of Nocturna, where blisteringly sexy Raphael dominates the demons of a lawless dimension and tries to help a beautiful young woman avenge her cousin’s disappearance. Note: Originally appeared in the Haunted By Your Touch anthology. Not related to the Night Huntress universe. 

A second shot at first love

After college, Ryan Kowalski decided to leave Whitford, Maine, rather than watch Lauren Carpenter marry another man. Now his siblings need his help to refurbish the family-owned Northern Star Lodge and he's forced to face the past sooner rather than later when he collars a vandal—and learns the boy is Lauren's son…

The last person Lauren needs back in her life is Ryan Kowalski. With a bitter ex-husband and a moody teenage son, she has enough man trouble already. But her son needs to learn a few lessons about right and wrong, even if Lauren has to escort him to Ryan's door every day to work off his crime.

With all this close contact, Ryan and Lauren can't deny the chemistry between them is as powerful as ever. But can a few searing kisses erase their past and pave the way for a second chance at true love?

With a chance to win a cooking competition that will advance her career, the last thing food truck chef Pepper Joseph needs is a distraction. Except she’s got a heaping helping of it in the form of fellow chef Darien Priest, the man who broke her heart.

It’s been years, and she tells herself she’s over his betrayal, but to her irritation, she finds she still has an appetite for his steel-gray eyes, clean-shaven head, and sleeve tattoos.

Darien regrets the single, juvenile act that ended it with Pepper, but he’s never found the courage to apologize. Now that they’re in close quarters, something’s steaming and it’s not just the saucepots. One toe-curling kiss proves there’s the potential for more than just a guarded friendship, and he sets out to prove he’s grown into an honorable man.

Until he discovers she’s pulled a seasoning switch that could have ruined one of his dishes. Now it’s on. There’s ten thousand dollars on the line, but if they don’t surrender to another chance at love, one—or both—of their wounded hearts could get singed.

Product Warnings

“Scorching hot” doesn’t refer to the food. Contains two chefs who’ll inspire cravings of the very carnal kind. Includes one delicious recipe guaranteed to blow any diet out of the water

Playing switch in front of a La Forge BDSM club audience was supposed to be a one-time fling. A favor for a friend. Instead, when Craig Eason realizes he’s caught the attention of an enigmatic, powerful Dom across the crowded room, he senses this could be the man he’s been looking for to test the boundaries of his own sexuality.

Firefighter Aiden Byrne is a very private man with strong S&M longings he keeps in check for everyone else’s safety. His sub, Jennifer Callum, thinks she likes it rough, but he can’t let go the way he’d like to. Until one defiant stare from the handsome cop on the La Forge stage causes Aiden’s most dangerous needs to uncoil from the deepest, darkest part of his soul.

With the blessing—and active involvement—of his sub, a seduction is set in motion that ends in a scene that shakes them all to the core…

Product Warnings

Contains a powerful, burly firefighter who plans to take everything a hot cop thinks he knows about himself and send it up in smoke. Please replace the batteries in all your smoke detectors before reading this book. Contains scenes with m/m/f, m/m, spanking, flogging, restraints, and one wild orgy of pleasure

Shapeshifter Monty GrayClaw has lived a wild life. A youth spent in Cougar Falls hadn't prepared him for the outside world, or for Hunters—humans who capture and slaughter Ac-taw. They nearly killed him before he escaped years of torture. Now living safely in Cougar Falls once more, he's trying to put the past behind him and look toward the future.

That future includes Sophie Tanner, a shy woman new to both her Ac-taw heritage and the town. Sophie is a sweet, lovely young wolf who calls to everything inside him. When an enemy from Monty’s past tracks him down, it will take the gentle woman with a will of iron to save the day. But when their shared history comes to haunt them both, can Monty save his mate, or will she leave him and Cougar Falls behind forever?

Product Warnings

A patient wolf and a shy virgin, date nights gone awry, kinky adult films and bad guys with a bite… When the good girl goes bad, stand back and watch the fur fly.

 £0.69p Bargain!

This Christmas, Santa is granting wishes these two friends never knew they had.

Helping his best friend photograph a bunch of hyperactive kids is suddenly the least of Dean Hall's problems when he sees the costume Talli wants him to wear. No guy in his right mind wants to be seen in a pair of tights.

Talli Jarmen isn't above a little subterfuge when she's desperate for help. But getting Dean's assistance proves to be more than she bargained for when she sees him decked out in the naughtiest Christmas costume she's ever laid eyes on. She's never thought about Dean that way, but seeing him practically naked has her questioning their 'friends only' status. But wanting more is dangerous. Are they willing to risk all they have for what could be?

Gia Duncan has turned her back on her family's wealth in order to run a community organization. That's why giving in to her desire for powerful, charismatic Keith Washington is a mistake she can make only once. Keith is the mayor's campaign manager and son, a workaholic whose only goal is to get his father reelected.

Gia knows he's an opponent she can't trust with her agenda, let alone her heart.At first, seducing Gia is just a way to keep her from derailing his father's reelection campaign. Until Keith starts to realize what everyone—especially matchmaker Mamma Lou—already knows. Nothing compares to the passion that keeps drawing him to Gia. But can he convince her that the only thing he truly wants from her is the promise of forever?

True love? For neuroscientist Dr. Mia Corregianni, it’s just an unproven hypothesis. But when she loses the heirloom watch her family believes is enchanted with a potent love spell, she fights superstition with superstition by hiring a psychic finder to track it down.

Chase Hunter is a human compass, homing in on whatever the seeker wants most—that is, when he isn’t surfing or actively avoiding anything resembling a real human attachment. Such has been his life since an accident took his family.

Unfortunately, Mia’s case isn’t a simple insta-Find. The catch? To disguise his real mission from her romance-crazy family, he has to pretend to be her boyfriend. He could deal with that if her complicated emotions weren’t blocking his abilities—or if her innermost desires weren’t walloping him upside the head every time he opens himself to his gift.

As the case wears on, their fake romance begins to feel all too real. Scary stuff for a man who’s reluctant to let himself live again. And a woman who doesn’t believe in magic…or love.

Product Warnings

This book contains meddling grandmothers, magic watches, and a surfer with a body so hot it can teach any scientist the true meaning of chemistry

The last person firefighter Chris Jackson expects to rescue from a burning animal shelter is Ally Gallant—his ex-fiancée. Even though three years have passed since she gave him back his ring, one look at her frightened face in the haze of a smoky building is all it takes for him to realize he’ll still do anything to protect her.

Ally’s put her heart and soul into the shelter, and she’s devastated when it’s destroyed. What's more, Chris is suddenly there for her in ways she doesn’t expect—ways she’s sure she doesn’t deserve—as she makes decisions about her future. Then there’s the not-so-small matter of the blazing passion between them that refuses to be extinguished.

But when Chris is injured while on a call, Ally’s reminded of all the reasons she walked away. Now she must look deep within herself to find the courage to put fear on the back burner and step into the fire—into love.

Warning: Adorable dogs, a hot firefighter and five-alarm passion. Fire extinguisher (or cold shower) highly recommended.