La Vie en Rose (Life in Pink) - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

    La Vie en Rose is a book about friendship, love, sex, and courage. 
    The author does a great job of taking us deep inside her characters. The story opens in the middle of Riley's erotic dream and shows just how guys think. It's hilarious! Riley shares a home with his lesbian sister Rarity and her good friend Emma ("...the sweet quiet type that never got in the way....") who is ditched by her fiancé as she's planning their wedding. With this cast of characters, there are lots of opportunities for conflict and humor.
    As Riley is drawn into Emma's drama, their deepening relationship is portrayed beautifully. The sex scenes are explicit and delicious. When serious health problems arise, the strength of the friendship between Emma, Riley, and Rarity is demonstrated by their support for each other, and makes the story even more meaningful.
    La Vie en Rose is an enjoyable book with likable characters and a great plot. I recommend it.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Romance / New Adult
Book Length: 380 Pages
Amazon Link: La Vie en Rose
Author Website: Lydia Michaels

First Paragraph:
     Riley's lips twitched as soft ebony curls ghosted over his bare stomach, lower and lower, tickling his hips and teasing that tight strip of flesh just below his bellybutton. A deep, satisfied growl rumbled in his chest like distant thunder as anticipation teetered on impatience - but it was a good, burning sort of anticipation. Holy fuck, was it good. Stretching, he gave Curls the access she needed and -

Teaser (from 13% on my Kindle):
[Emma has asked Riley to fix her up with one of his friends. He's explaining why he doesn't want to.]
"They're my guy friends. Their credentials include an ability to provide beer, remark judiciously about superior tits and ass, have access to sports channels, and being available to do nothing at a moments notice."

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
    Emma Sanders has always dreamt of being a bride, wearing fancy gowns, pretty pearls, and—of course—falling madly in love. Then life happened. Finding herself one fiancé short of her happily ever after, she leaves the fairytales behind. Some days are simply too perilous for pink gowns and pearls.
    Riley Lockhart is the sort of man who can make a woman lower her gaze with only a smile. That he doesn’t realize his charm makes him all the more enchanting. Determined to save Emma the pain of her breakup, he steps in as a friend, but soon finds himself wanting more.
    She was just a girl, but she somehow winds up being the strongest woman he’s ever known. Losing her is not an option and when life can’t be tied neatly in a pretty little bow, he holds tight to all that he loves—his Emma. His hero.
    Sometimes the greatest scars are worn on the inside. 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

The Shadow Cartel (The Dominic Gray Series) - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

    I enjoy reading books that are set in places I've visited or towns where I've lived. So when I saw that The Shadow Cartel was set in Miami, where I lived for many years, I knew I had to read it, even though the story is outside my usual genre. 
    I've just started reading the book, and I'm enthralled by the story! The author obviously knows the city inside and out. He even mentioned the neighborhood where my husband and I once lived. From the venerable Tobacco Road bar to the high rise office buildings along Brickell Avenue, I'm enjoying my virtual visit back to South Florida. 
   The Shadow Cartel is Book #4 in the Dominic Gray Series.



First Paragraph:
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,
Northwest Guyana
November 18, 1978
     The man known as John Wolverton cocked his head at the sound, a faint thwap that echoed through the vines and trees. He reasoned the shot had come from a poacher's rifle.
     Surely it hadn't come from the Port Kaituma airstrip. From Congressman Ryan's delegation, sent to investigate the conditions of Reverand Jones's utopian cult that had set up shop in the middle of the Guyanese jungle. Reverend Jones was a sociopath, but he wasn't suicidal, and the doctors agreed the two were mutually exclusive.


Teaser (from 21% on my Kindle):
[Here's a character's description of Miami from her memories. Yes, it's only two sentences.]
   She could still draw a map of the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, picture the evening light sinking into No Name Harbor, and tell friends visiting the city where to find the best ceviche, the most authentic sangria, the perfect little wine shop hidden in the maze of Cuban bakeries on Coral Way. She loved the smell of roasting coffee, the sexy fashion boutiques, the day trips to the Everglades and the weekend trips to the Keys, the serendipity of a peacock sighting on the way to the grocery store, the delight of biting into one of the mangoes weighing down the limbs of neighborhood trees in summer.

Genre: Thriller
Book Length: 434 Pages
Amazon Link: The Shadow Cartel
Author Website: Layton Green

Synopsis:

The sins of the past always return...

    The General.  A name whispered in hushed tones among the criminal underworld, from Miami to Buenos Aires.  A name even the drug cartels fear.  

    Yet the General is a man without a face.  There are no fingerprints on file, no known base of operations, not even a biographical sketch.  He operates in the shadows, but somehow controls a vast criminal empire.

    And he has never made a direct incursion onto U.S. soil -- until now.

    In Miami, disgraced DEA agent Fred Hernandez is called to investigate a bizarre crime scene, where the bodies of four drug dealers are sprawled around an iron cauldron.  Even stranger is the mysterious 'blue lady' that a drug-addled witness claims killed the men.

    Lana Valenciano, an ambitious CIA operative, informs Agent Hernandez that the murders might be connected to a legendary South American criminal known as the General.  Lana claims the General has become a threat to national security -- but has no idea how to find him.

    The government's best hope?  Private investigators Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, who might be the only people alive with the skills to unravel the General's tangled web.  

    Thrown together on a covert manhunt, Grey and the two agents delve into the darkest reaches of international drug trafficking, only to unearth a sinister chapter in the history of the CIA that has spilled into the present -- and put them in the crosshairs of an underworld puppeteer with a frightening reach.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger