Quick Hits: Ghostly Demise by Tonya Kappes + Evening Storm by Anne Calhoun

 
I hope y'all are having a fantastic week! Here's a couple of short, but very satisfying novels, that I recommend y'all read either over the weekend, or sometime in the nearest future.

Ghostly Demise by Tonya Kappes | Ghostly Southern Mysteries 3
Paranormal-Comedy-Cozy Mystery | Witness | August 25, 2015 | eGalley via Edelweiss
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A quirky funeral parlor girl who can see the ghosts of (murdered) Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky's dearly departed, add her meddling grandma, and a town full of nutty folks, and you have a very entertaining Ghostly Southern Mystery in your hands. Tonya Kappes is now a favorite when it comes to cozy mysteries, and GHOSTLY DEMISE did not disappoint. 

GHOSTLY DEMISE pulled me out of a lingering reading slump. It's funny, it's intriguing, it's crazy, and absolutely charming. The ghost of Cephus Hardy, Emma Lee's current "client", is an unreliable witness to his own murder, but his antics had me chuckling all the way. I enjoyed how TKappes plotted Cephus' murder-mystery, it's something I wasn't expecting based on Cephus' account, even if his story has some holes in it. 

Zula Fae Raines Payne, Emma Lee's grandmother, totally stole the novel from our Betweener. She's running for Mayor at Sleepy Hollow and I have no words to describe her campaign. The lady is a class act! She's exasperating and endearing at the same time, I definitely don't want to be related to Zula Fae nor do I want to be in her periphery. *crosses myself*

I love Ghostly Southern Mysteries! TKappes' sense of humor works for me 100%, and if we're similar in that you also don't skip out on an opportunity to laugh, then TKappes' books would be perfect for you. 

 

Evening Storm by Anne Calhoun | Irresistible 4

Romantica | InterMix | August 18, 2015 | Publisher via NetGalley

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Have you had the pleasure of reading Anne Calhoun's Irresistible series yet? If the answer is a resounding YES, then don't miss out on EVENING STORM. If your answer is NO, then this can be a perfect starting point for you. 

EVENING STORM might be the fourth book in the series, but it can stand strongly on it's own. A plump and juicy novel, Irresistible 4 is less than 200 pages and packed with all the good stuff romantica has to offer. EVENING STORM, in a phrase is, pure romantic tension. Simone Demarchelier is a lingerie designer while Ryan Hamilton is a typical Wallstreet wolf, and their sexual chemistry is simply electric. Theirs is a tale of modern day courtship one usually finds in historical romance novels, flowers, expensive presents, beer on a stoop during Sunset, lots of sexy talk, and no sex until towards the end. Simone and Ryan flirted heavily, played the game of seduction skillfully, these two will make you pant, and be so aware of them, you'll forget to breathe.

This series is simply beautiful, seductive, erotic, never dirty, and completely arresting. EVENING STORM is a total winner from beginning to end not to mention the fantastic storytelling style that is strictly ACalhoun's. I can gush all day about this series, but I think it would be better if you try this series on your own. It's one of those novels whose magic you have to experience for yourself.

Simone was used to this, used to being invisible, talked over, and around, and even through as she fitted garments to bodies. But the look Jade gave Ryan made something simmer low in Simone’s belly. It was envy, she realized, rasping against arousal like satin against chiffon. Frequently women like Jade faked their enthusiasm for men’s attentions. Women always saw through that act, while men rarely seemed to, but Jade wasn’t faking it. Whatever had happened in that dressing room before Simone knocked on the door wasn’t something Jade tolerated in order to get a shopping trip or a bauble from Van Cleef and Arpels.

She liked the sex. She wanted more of it. She was deploying all of her rather considerable feminine wiles to get it.

Simone turned her head to look directly at Ryan. Rather than sitting in one of the chairs close to Jade, he was braced against one of the worktables, arms folded across his chest and legs crossed at the ankle. Outside the action. Watching it. Stripped of the clothes and shoes that emphasized the power he exuded, he might be rather unremarkable. Dishwater blond hair, a square face dominated by interesting eyes that started out green and turned to gray around the pupil, the body of a man who worked at a desk with a Bluetooth headset in one ear studying spreadsheets and predictions and charts, analyzing trends, searching for the best way to make billions. And yet, looking at them, she had no doubt that this man drew people to him, not just women but other men, too, because there was just something about him.

Charisma. The fashion and design worlds were full of charismatic people, individuals with brilliant ideas and the drive to see them become a reality on the runway, in fashion magazines, and worn by stars and socialites and political figures. Simone should be inured to it. But now, with Ryan in her workroom, studying the body of his current lover with a detachment Simone found both perplexing and hot as hell, she realized that she was far less inured to it than she thought.