Tuesday 27 June 2023

🌜 Pepper Winters 🐬 LUNAMARE 🦁 Luna Duet #1 πŸŒ•

 ©  Bianca ✰ 




• 27 June 2023
• Book #1 in the Luna Duet
• #2 - Cor Amare → 25 July

Tropes: Age Gap(-py: 4.5 years!), Angsty, Childhood Sweethearts, Close Proximity, Coming-of-Age, Fish Out of Water, Forbidden Love, Found Family, Interracial/Multicultural, Love at First Sight, Main Character in Peril, Orphan, Soul Mate, Tragic Past, Secrets, Longing, New Adult

★★★★★
4.6 Stars

"This incomparable duet is Pepper Winters’ DEFINING MASTERPIECE – a true romantic masterpiece of SOULMATE love. Lunamare is in a realm of its own -- like no other love story you will ever read." - Goodreads

. . . . . .

“Is it true…that you pulled a lion from the ocean and fell in love with him?”

ASLAN

The sixteen-year-old boy named after a lion.
A boy with his entire life ahead of him.
A boy running from a terrible secret.
All it takes is one awful night to change everything.
One secret, one smuggler, one boat, one storm.
And he wakes in an entirely different existence.
Staring into the ocean-blue eyes of his twelve-year-old rescuer.

NERIDA

The twelve-year-old girl named after a sea nymph.
A girl with lofty dreams and absolute faith that she’ll achieve them.
All it takes is a bright, sunny morning to change everything.
One boy clinging to wreckage, one sea cradling him close, one chance at keeping him safe.
He’s illegal and unwanted.
She’s stubborn and so sure.
He’s lost absolutely everything.
And she’s found the only thing she ever wanted.

They begin as rescued and rescuer.
Slowly growing from twelve and sixteen.
He’s not allowed to touch her.
She’s convinced he is the one.
But as each day dawns on his illegal existence, Aslans’s secrets creep ever closer, the death he ran from hunts ever faster, and the darkness that he can’t get free of finally finds him.
And it costs him…
everything.

A true coming-of-age story that spans a lifetime. This book deals with heavy subjects and is advised you check the Content Warnings on the Author’s website.

Lunamare is a tangled romance that fans of The Ribbon Duet will love. Combining the beautiful drama of Nicholas Sparks with the brutality of dark romance, Pepper Winters has created a tale of soulmates, secrets, cruelty, and heart-wrenching love.




Nerida + Aslan

We first meet Nerida when she is very old and about to tell her life and love story to two journalists.
When she was twelve years old, she was out on the ocean with her marine biologist parents to check on the whales.
That's when they saved a boy from certain death.
16 year old Aslan has been on the run with his family for almost a year. Something happened at home in Turkey and they all had to leave - or be killed.
Now they were almost safely in Australia when the little boat didn't make it throught that last storm. Aslan was the only survivor. He lost his parents, his little sister and his cousin.
He's not legally in Australia obviously, but he can't go back home. He's relatively happy living with the Taylors and working on their boat for now.
But little Nerida has grander ideas. She knows that this boy will one day be her husband.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR DARLINGS?
A LOT .... that's all I can tell you ....
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT MORE ... 
Although we might get a tiny little huge cliffy - but no worries - book #2 will be here soon!


Well. I loved this.
I was afraid that this book would be way more paranormal. There's nothing paranormal here. A tiny little bit maybe where Nerida feels things a bit more than other people. But I didn't mind that at all.
The tropes or rather more the trigger warnings scared me as well... 
But I survived that stupid party scene (I mean how can she be so stupid to even go there in the first place - not that I want to say everything is her own fault - but she should've just never gone there!)
Anyway. I really enjoyed reading this. 
You cry a lot and you just want there to be a happy end for them. But it doesn't look good. Especially if you listen to what 'old' Nerida is telling us. Ugh. I just wanted to fast forward to the end of book 2! LOL.
Can't wait to see where these two books will take us.

LUNAMARE was such a great start for this coming-of-age duet.
Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Scary. Dangerous. Mysterious. Sexy. Sweet. Water-y. Australian. National Geographic-ish. And alll the things. READ IT! And hurry book 2 - I need to know how it all ends!



 LINKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR 
 


Pre-Order Book #2 - 25 July
 


↓ Just in case you haven't read this yet.... ↓
  

Fable Book #1
 


Book #2
 

Book #3

 






Pepper Winters is a multiple New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today International Bestseller.

She currently has thirty books released in nine languages. She’s hit best-seller lists (USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal) thirty-three times. She dabbles in multiple genres, ranging from Dark Romance to Coming of Age.

After chasing her dreams to become a full-time writer, Pepper has earned recognition with awards for best Dark Romance, best BDSM Series, and best Hero. She’s an multiple #1 iBooks bestseller, along with #1 in Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and Erotica Thriller. With 20 books currently published, she has hit the bestseller charts twenty-nine times in three years.

Pepper is a Hybrid Author of both Traditional and Self-published work. Her Pure Corruption Series was released by Grand Central, Hachette.

Her books have garnered foreign interest and are currently being translated into numerous languages, including already released titles in Italian, French, Hebrew, German, and Turkish.

🌸 Catherine Bybee 🍷 BEGINNING OF FOREVER πŸ‡ D'Angelos #3 πŸ’

 

BEGINNING OF FOREVER
Catherine Bybee

• 27 June 2023
• standalone Romance
• Book #3 in the D'Angelos Series

★★★★★
4.75 Stars

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee comes the story of two wine enthusiasts who ride the ups and downs of love in the vineyards of Tuscany.

Tasting
wine is not enough: sommelier Giovanni D’Angelo wants to create it. To put his family first, he’s always deferred his dreams—a vineyard to run, a woman to marry. But a three-week vineyard tour in Italy could set him back on track.

For Emma Rutledge, wine is in her blood. Intent to run the family wine business one day, she finds that the men in her family are only intent to push her out of it. But that’s fine—she’s got a plan.

When Gio and Emma meet on a wine tour in Tuscany, their shared aspirations fuel an undeniable chemistry. Returning home to California, they work toward setting up Emma’s vineyard and a label of their own. But when Emma receives a life-altering diagnosis, she worries it’s all been for nothing.

As Emma works to cement her family legacy while dealing with this unexpected challenge, Gio tries to convince her that their future isn’t just wine.

It’s each other.






Emma + Gio

Gio's dream has always been to one day have a big family and own a little place where he can make his own wine.
Emma was born into a huge wine empire. But her dad only sees her as an unqualified female. So now she wants to have her own winery in Southern California. Far away from her dad in Napa.
Gio and Emma meet on a wine tasting group tour in Tuscany.
It's all sparks and wine and fun and amazing moments...
But can they have a future together? They kinda basically almost have the same dreams....

Let the fun times begin...



Another perfect love story in this adorable series.
I love the whole family vibe and the weeks in Italy were just amazing. I so wanted to join them in drinking all that wine and eat all that amazing food!
You'd think it would be so easy for Emma and Gio just to get together and live their dream winery lives... But it's not.
Emma is not dreaming of the big family with lots of kids. She just wants the wine and to prove to her idiot dad that she can do this.
And poor Gio. He wants exactly what he had growing up. The perfect family - plus his own wine.
Plus we have a bit of a health scare too.
But we have the whole book to get to that happy end.
I really loved reading this.
I don't know what it is with me and wine country books. I just adore them. I'm not a big wine-drinking person at all - but those books are just totally my thing.

I so need to see this series on TV one day!
The people, the locations, the FOOD and wine....
Can't wait to read Salena's story next!

BEGINNING OF FOREVER was such an adorable + funny + sweet + sparky + just beautiful Italian/Californian wine love story - I loved it! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Gio - this one is mine!




ARC received for an honest review
 
Welcome back to Little Italy and the D'angelos.
 
Add in a wine tasting trip to Italy, a lovely lady from Temecula and the Golden Girls, and you get this fabulous installment of the D'Angelo series.
 
There is so much different between Emma and Gio's family, his full of love, hers part love, part... well, not sure what you would call it.
 
But their love of wine (in a non-alcoholic way) is what brings their love story to life.
 
I loved the imagery of the Italian landscape, made me want to be on the tour, eating all the cheese boards (because I don't like wine, but the cheese and crackers, nom nom nom)
 
I thing Emma and Gio should have their own show on the Food  Network, with their tour friends as special guests!
 
I really enjoyed this series, this family and their HEAs



↓ Links to the Book & Author ↓
 

Pre-Order Book #4 - 14 November 2023
 

Book #1
 

Book #2
 


Stalking Catherine ...




New York Times bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating from high school, she moved to Southern California with hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the International Bestselling Not Quite series, the MacCoinnich Time Travel series as well as the Internationally Bestselling Weekday Brides series.