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Review: Honey Pie (Cupcake Club #4) by Donna Kauffman

It has been about a year since I've read the first book in the Cupcake Club serie by Donna Kauffman. (Click here for the review of Sugar Rush.) I was going through a Foodie Romance fase and her and Louisa Edwards' books were definitely my favorites. Honey Pie was released TODAY and I'm very happy I once again get the chance to go back to Sugarberry Island to get reunited with Miss Alva, all our other favorite characters and to get to know one very lovely (read gorgeous) Dylan and one mysterious Honey.

*I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review*
Mocha Chocolate Chip… Caramel Fudge…Strawberry Lemonade…Butter Rum…There’s no such thing as guilt when it’s another delicious bitch and bake session with the women of the Cupcake Club…

When Honey D’Amourvell inherits property on tiny Sugarberry Island, she’s prepared to start a whole new life. Her plan is simple—make a home, open a shop, and maybe, finally, find a place to belong. But the building she now owns is leased to none other than the owner of Babycakes, which means her spot is already occupied. Honey isn’t sure how to put down roots when she has nowhere to plant them. But sexy, softhearted mechanic Dylan Ross seems determined to help. He’s everything she never imagined she would find in a man, and each kiss is more persuasive than the last…

Soon enough, Honey is another important ingredient in the spicy mix of the Cupcake Club. But will Dylan convince her that what she craves most is his love?
Review:
Honey has packed up her old life into her Beetle and rode halfway across the country to start over on the island that her dear aunt Bea loved so much. Only to arrive and find out the shop her aunt left her is now leased to Lani for her Babycakes shop. There is no going back, partly because her car broke down, but also because she made this terrifying decision and she just can't go back.

Luckily Dylan, the mechanic, is here to the rescue. It's just, he's not the knight in shining armor type, nor does he ever want to be. He would rather stay away as far as possible from Honey, but he's a fixer and he's into that island mentality of helping even if you didn't ask. Dylan was the first person she met on the island and after discovering her "gift", he didn't freak out one her. Which naturally made her freak out a bit.
"Sugar, we all have a little bit of crazy in us. It's what keeps it interesting."
Now Honey's "gift" is something special and the reason why she has lived such a lonely and secluded life so far. It was not because she wanted to, but it was out of necessity she had to stay away from people physically, which of course also created emotional distance. Being confronted with Dylan was not what she expected at all. The way he accepts her, which she knows is not easy at all, makes her yearn for that closeness and it looks like she might get it as well.
"What was it about her that made him want to move mountains, slay dragons, he couldn't rightly have said"
Dylan on the other hand chooses to stay away from people, simple because he wants to. He has had a very difficult family situation, which is now all in the past, but not something a little town like Sugarberry Island could forget. Everything has been very eventful and now he just want peace and quiet, no more drama. So for the life of him he can't figure out why he keeps thinking of Honey, when she screams drama (even if it's unintentionally).

Surprisingly way less food and cupcakes involved in this book compared to the others. Honey is absolutely no baker and just participates in the Cupcake Club as a taster. Also the paranormal theme was a major surprise to me, but definitely made it very interesting setting up roadblocks between Honey and Dylan you would never expect.
"We Southerners deal with this ungodly heat by being unbearably civilized."
I love it that all the characters from the previous books make a cameo appearance. Miss Alva is still my favorite character, she's amazing and I adore how she keeps everyone on their toes around her. So Honey Pie has plenty of humor, lots of drama of course, some delicious cupcakes, a bit of the occult and a smoking hot man, everything a woman could ever want!


There are plenty of Foodie Romances out there these days, but which one is your favorite ?


Connect with Donna Kauffman:

        

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T.G.I.T. (April 29)

Aaargh! I think authors are out to get me, there are so many great books releasing lately and I can't keep up :) I'm being buried under my TBR pile. By the way have you seen the cover of the Rocker That Savors Me?? Holy smokes that's hot!!!

Wicked as She Wants (Blud #2) by Delilah S. Dawson [Purchase]
Oath Bound (Unbound #3) by Rachel Vincent [Purchase]
The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa [Purchase]

Headed for Trouble (Troubleshooters #16.5) by Suzanne Brockmann [Purchase]
Dark Days (Black London #6) by Caitlin Kittredge [Purchase]
Barefoot in the Sun (Barefoot Bay #3) by Roxanne St. Claire [Purchase]

Bronze Gods (Apparatus Infernum #1) by A.A. Aguirre [Purchase]
This Girl (Slammed #3) by Colleen Hoover [Purchase]
The Program (Program #1) by Suzanne Young [Purchase]

One for the Wicked (Dark Mission #5) by Karina Cooper [Purchase]
Honey Pie (Cupcake Club #4) by Donna Kauffman [Purchase]
Midnight Secrets (Wildefire #1) by Ella Grace [Purchase]

Rogue Descendant (Nikki Glass #3) by Jenna Black [Purchase]
Breathless (Elemental #2.5) by Brigid Kemmerer [Purchase]
Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2) by Wendy Higgins [Purchase]

The Rocker That Savors Me (The Rocker) by Terri Anne Browning [Purchase]
Cowboy Take Me Away (Rainbow Valley #1) by Jane Graves [Purchase]

Let's be honest, which book do you not want to read from this week's T.G.I.T.?

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Cover Reveal: Beauty from Surrender (Beauty #2) by Georgia Cates



Expected release date: May 30, 2013

The story of Jack Henry and Laurelyn continues...

How do you move on when he’s every song you sing?

After Laurelyn Prescott walks away from the love of her life, she returns to Nashville to pursue the only dream she has left. Determined to find a distraction from the pain of losing Jack Henry, she immerses herself in her music. But with her old life comes old acquaintances and new expectations. When Laurelyn refuses her record producer’s outrageous demands, she finds herself without a career—until an unforeseen opportunity presents itself. From there it’s a rocket ride straight to the top where Laurelyn finds the success she’s always dreamed of. Will it be enough to bring her the happiness she so deserves, or will the absence of Jack Henry leave her wanting more?

Jack Henry McLachlan never expected to fall in love with Laurelyn Prescott—but he did. After he foolishly let her slip through his fingers, he spends three months searching for her, but their reunion doesn’t come easy. The woman he finds isn’t the same one who drifted away without a goodbye. No longer an insecure girl on an Australian adventure, this Laurelyn is a successful musician with a promising career. Her dreams are becoming a reality, and Jack is terrified his American girl won’t have a place for him in her new life. With only a month to convince her otherwise, will it be enough time to make her visualize a life beyond the glitz and glamour, a life that includes him?

About the Author
Georgia resides in rural Mississippi with her wonderful husband, Jeff, and their two beautiful daughters. She spent fourteen years as a labor and delivery nurse before deciding to pursue her dream of becoming an author. Despite the struggle, she has no regrets in her decision to try this crazy life. She can honestly say that she’s living the dream.

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Cover Reveal: Until I Break by M. Leighton



Title: Until I Break 

Author: M. Leighton 

Publisher: M. Leighton 

Release date: May 14, 2013 

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Age Group: Adult 

Cover reveal organized by: AToMR Tours

Laura Drake is an author. She writes bestselling paranormal romances that continue to top the charts. She is sharp. She is confident. She is in control. 

And she doesn’t exist. 

Samantha Jansen is the woman behind the wig, the woman most of the world doesn’t know exists. She is shy. She is insecure. She is nothing like her main character or her alter ego. She is scarred—deeply scarred—by a past she can’t let go of and a present she can’t make peace with. 

Samantha’s dreams are consumed by one man, the broken hero from her books. Mason Strait is both her wildest fantasy and her most terrifying nightmare. 

When Samantha meets Alec Brand, a corporate consultant, it is as though Mason has come to life. Alec is handsome to a fault, as elegant as he is arrogant, and more intense than any man has a right to be. 

Samantha is soon sucked into a world that mirrors the fiction she writes. Just like her main character, Daire Kirby, Samantha finds herself unable to resist the forbidden lure of Alec. And just like Daire, she also finds that she is faced with taking a chance on a man who could either set her free or destroy her. The scale tilts toward destruction when Samantha finds out that Alec is as much a work of fiction as Mason. And he has scars of his own, scars that could ruin them both. 

About the Author
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, M. Leighton, is a native of Ohio. She relocated to the warmer climates of the South, where she can be near the water all summer and miss the snow all winter. Possessed of an overactive imagination from early in her childhood, Michelle finally found an acceptable outlet for her fantastical visions: literary fiction. Having written over a dozen novels, these days Michelle enjoys letting her mind wander to more romantic settings with sexy Southern guys, much like the one she married and the ones you'll find in her latest books. When her thoughts aren't roaming in that direction, she'll be riding wild horses, skiing the slopes of Aspen or scuba diving with a hot rock star, all without leaving the cozy comfort of her office.

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Double Giveaway + Guest Post: Future-Noir or Why Retro Science Fiction is Awesome by Susan Kaye Quinn

Apparently, I write strange science fiction. This comes up whenever I try to classify my stories to readers, bloggers, the lady at the checkout stand, my mother, or Amazon (who insists that I need a "category" in which to place my books; I insist I need about five). Apparently I write novels that mash together all kinds of genres in an indiscriminate cross-pollenation that would have Isaac Asimov turning in his grave... if he hadn't done the same sort of thing himself as a young man (winking at you, Isaac!).
Seriously, if you want to see a good bar brawl among literary types, just ask them what's the genre of Hunger Games or Time Traveler's Wife or any Nicolas Sparks novel, and watch the rhetoric fly! I personally have a very laizzez-faire approach toward genre definitions, which is sure to infuriate genre-disciplinarians. (I don't mention my east-indian-influenced steampunk fantasy romance to genre-afficianados. I don't want them to rupture something.) 

I figure the story comes first; people can decide what genre it is after it's written. So no one was more surprised than me when I ended up writing a future-noir. 

On a long car ride, just me and my Muse... 

Muse: The Debt Collector. 

Me: Er, what? Who are you? 

Muse: When people's debts exceed their future potential contributions to society, he cashes them out. 

Me: Whoa. Tell me more. 

Muse: He extracts their life energy and transfers it to a "high potential" - someone who can use it to make greater contributions to the world. 

Me: Holy... that's a great idea. 

Muse: He's a good man with bad power. And it's future-noir. 

Me: Future-noir! Cool! Uh, what is that exactly?

Muse: Dark. Gritty. Futuristic but retro at the same time. 

Me: Oh... like Blade Runner... Holy cats, this is awesome. 

Muse: You're welcome. 

I ran (well, okay, drove) home and wrote the first episode. It was dark, gritty. Lots of low light, shady characters, set in a futuristic LA where the smog pooled at the impoverished feet of the city and the wealthy high-potentials lived above it all in the clean, clear air, taking their life-energy-hits courtesy of the titular Debt Collectors. The fashion was retro-sexy. The feel was future-dystopian. Did I mention it's gritty? And dark? I send it off to my critique partner...

My Crit Partner: Hey, your new Debt Collector story reminds me of Looper! 

Me: Well, it is future noir. *acts like I know what I'm talking about*

My Crit Partner: Seriously. I totally see Lirium as a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt! And it totally reads like noir. You know, like Double Indemnity! 

Me: Double what? That's not one of those old black-n-white films, is it? 

My Crit Partner: All those noir films were black-n-white.

Me: Right! I knew that. (Sure.) Anyway, I think of Lirium more as James McAvoy in a trenchcoat. 

My Crit Parnter: I can work with that. *we both drool on the picture* 

Wait, what was I saying? Right. Future-noir. Gritty retro feel - where the men wear trenchcoats and slick suits and the women wear bright red lipstick and carry a mini-revolver under their skirts - only it's a futuristic story with time-travel (Looper) or berzerker androids (Blade Runner) or life-energy transfers (Debt Collector) that change the landscape. It's raw. It's sexy. It's awesome.
It looks something like this.

Nice Blogger Lady: What genre is that?

Me: Future-noir.

NBL: What's future-noir?

Me: It's a science fictiony, mystery type of story. Sort of a mix between urban fantasy and noir, with a thriller twist. There could be romance in there too. Like Blade Runner. Or Looper!

NBL: I'll just call it science fiction.

Me: Works for me. :)

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA SF Mindjack series. Her new Debt Collector serial is her more grown-up SF that she likes to call future-noir. Her steampunk fantasy romance is temporarily on hold while she madly writes episodes to keep Lirium (the titular Debt Collector) happy. Plus she needs to leave time to play on Facebook. Susan has a lot of degrees in engineering, which come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mind powers, future dystopias, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. Mostly she sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets make stuff up full-time. You can find her at www.susankayequinn.com 

What's your life worth on the open market? A debt collector can tell you precisely. Delirium (Debt Collector 1) is now available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords. See the Debt Collector website to check all the latest episode releases and goings on in the Debt Collector world.

What’s your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.
Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He’s just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja’s sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane… until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn’t what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he’s not sure he’ll be able to climb out of again.



**GIVEAWAY #1**
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**GIVEAWAY #2**
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Stacking The Shelves (April 28)

Stacking the Shelves is based on the meme by Tynga's Reviews. It features the books I bought or received this week and a quick overview of blog happenings this week.


Book Tours
Book tours include guest posts, interviews, excerpts, scavenger hunt etc. some also include reviews and giveaways so be sure to check them out.




Reviews
    



Giveaways





Stacking The Shelves*


 
*It's possible not all these books will be reviewed.

So last week has been a pretty busy week and next week is going to be even busier. Lots of great books to read and to review :)

What was your favorite post this week?
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