'Tanner' American Extreme Bull Riders Tour #1 by Sarah Mayberry

Received via NetGalley

From the BLURB:

He’s used to risking it all in the ring, but nothing prepared him for love…

After flying half-way around the world to surprise her boyfriend, Evie Forrester finds herself heartbroken and stranded in a strange city. What could be a total disaster becomes something else when a tall, dark bull rider turns out to be a white knight in disguise. Evie isn’t sure she needs saving, but Tanner Harding is a difficult man to deny. He’s even harder to resist…

Tanner Harding can tame a monster bull with ease, but he never expected to be floored by someone like Evie. Sparks fly between them until injury threatens to end Tanner’s career –and suddenly he’s the one in need of a rescue.

Evie can’t turn her back on her wounded hero and, as Tanner struggles with his recovery, she’s not sure she can guard her heart against him either. Tanner knows Evie has slipped under his skin, but she lives in Australia and his future is under a cloud. Can two people with too many reasons to walk away make the bold decision to stay?

‘Tanner’ is the first book in a new alternate-writers series from Tule Publishing, called American Extreme Bull Riders Tour – and this first instalment is written by Australian romance author (and one of my fave-of-faves!) Sarah Mayberry.

Now, cowboys are not really my thing. Every romance reader has their trope-of-choice; and cowboys just aren’t mine. My bestie is all about the ice-hockey players, while I’m more of a Scotsman in a kilt kinda gal … but the whole Western Romance/Cowboys/Bullriders thing has just never been on my radar. Until now.

The series starts out with 25-year-old naïve Evie, flying all the way from her family’s farm in Australia to Tulsa in America, to be with her long-distance boyfriend (and childhood crush) Troy, on the last 2 weeks of his Extreme Bull Riders circuit tour. But when Evie arrives she’s met with the shocking realisation that Troy hasn’t been anywhere near as invested in their relationship as she was – and has in fact been bedding buckle bunnies for the months that Evie was pining for him and planning her grand-gesture surprise arrival.

The one person to witness the full-force of Evie’s uncovered betrayal is Troy’s opponent on the tour, Tanner ‘Hard Man’ Harding – a famous Bull Rider tipped to win this circuit. Against his better judgement, Tanner is moved by Evie’s plight – and impressed with her stoicism in the light of such betrayal. He rescues Evie from a seedy motel, and insists she take the spare bed in his Hilton hotel room – and stay with him for the few days it takes her to sort out a plan for the two weeks she’s stuck in America on a non-refundable plane ticket.

But pretty soon Evie is forgetting all about Troy and her heartbreak; so focused on the kindness and gruff compassion of Tanner, not to mention an impressive body crafted from years on the Riding circuit. Tanner, for his part, quickly becomes infatuated with Evie – her iron-will, and sweet disposition – and the two of them fall into an intense and loving fling that only grows stronger when an accident forges a friendship in the fires of tragic circumstances.

There was a small silence, but as he climbed back into bed she blew her nose. Not a delicate little lady honk, either. 

“Thank you.” Her voice was thick with tears. “Sorry if I’m keeping you awake. I think it’ll pass soon.” 

“Don’t apologize for having your heart broken,” he said. 

Troy was the one who should be apologizing. Tanner had no problem with anyone taking pleasure where they found it, but trying to have a bet each way struck him as being greedy and more than a little selfish. If Troy wanted to play, he shouldn’t have made whatever promises he’d made to Evie, and vice versa. 

She blew her nose again, then he heard the sound of her moving around in the bed, changing position. 

“I think maybe I came to Tulsa to have my heart broken,” she said very quietly.  

Sarah Mayberry’s Tanner is more of what I love from this auto-buy author. Her characters often start out in the trickiest of circumstances – in this case, Evie getting her heart broken by her childhood crush in the first two chapters! – but the strength of Sarah’s romances is how these character get back up again and find their way to happiness in spite of the worst circumstances.

The other thing I love about Sarah Mayberry’s books is that they’re just so darn hot – and Tanner has got to be one of her hottest yet! I said I didn’t like cowboys so much, but Sarah has imbued this hero with a commendable chivalry and tender compassion that’s mouth-wateringly tempting. There were a few times when Tanner could have been seen to come across as He-Man bossy, but when his particular brand of take-charge gruffness was up against Evie’s own iron-will, it only made for a spectacular coupling with a give-take that was so much fun to read!

I’m keen to read more from the American Extreme Bull Riders Tour, even if Sarah isn’t penning the next three … She’s coaxed me over to the Cowboy-Trope side, and has sprinkled this first instalment with enough intriguing characters that I’m now keen to follow their stories (not least among them being Troy, because even though he does something awful to Evie in this book – there’s hints of a dark past that needs addressing before he can open himself up to love!)

Sarah Maybery is one of my favourite, favourite, favourite romance writers – ever! – and Tanner has just made its way onto my Top 5 faves from her list. Which is really saying something!

5/5

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'The Outback Bachelor Ball' series review

Received from the author 

SERIES BLURB:

A cow, a cowgirl and a divorcee walk into a bar...

Three unlucky-in-love girlfriends make a road trip to the Outback Bachelor & Spinster Ball, a highlight of rural Australian life. One's looking to move on, one’s thumbing her nose at romance, and one's looking to slip away and hide. None of them are looking for love...

Three women are about to meet their match in a cowboy, a soldier and a country rock star. One magical night. One less than magical morning after.

Forty-eight hours can change your life.

‘The Outback Bachelor Ball’ is a contemporary rural romance novella series from Canadian Joan Kilby, New Zealander Karina Bliss and one of my favourite Aussie romance authors, Sarah Mayberry. The novellas can be read out of order as stand-alones, but they are probably best read as a trilogy – with first novella ‘Win Me’, followed by ‘Woo Me’ and concluding with ‘Wait For Me’.

Confession: I don’t particularly like rural romances. I know, I know – stone the flamin’ crows, and after I wrote a whole spiel about why people should read New Adult romance and not reject the entire subgenre out of hand too! I know. I can’t help it – but when I think “rural” I’m more likely to go to a ‘Wolf Creek’ place than a men of ‘McLeod’s Daughters’ headspace. Luckily, the ‘The Outback Bachelor Ball’ wooed me with Joan Kilby’s first instalment, ‘Win Me’ – in which we’re introduced to the series’ three heroines, who are as dubious about rural Australian courtship as I am;

Amused, Ellie and Beth exchanged glances. Jen was always efficient and super organized. Ellie clicked on the link and the first photo that came up was of a naked, drunken cowboy gyrating with an empty beer can on his dick. They all howled with laughter. 

“Now there’s your Prince Charming,” Jen said. 

“Oh, yuck. It’s all drunken yobs, wet T-shirt competitions and if you’re lucky, a quick fuck in the back of a truck.” Beth said, checking out the site. “Even the title sucks – Bachelor and Spinster Ball. I’m not a dried-up old spinster, I’m a highly desirable…” She hunted for the right term. 

“Spachelor?” Jen suggested and they dissolved into fits again.

—   Win Me by Joan Kilby

Ellie McFarlane is our first heroine – she’s coming home from America where she’s been learning all about cattle ranch management, and though she’s excited to take charge of the family business, she can’t deny that returning home to her long-time crush and station manager Rick Drummond is another plus. But Ellie has to contend with Rick’s sense of proprietary when it comes to his feelings for his boss’ daughter (the man who is also his mentor, and more of a father to him).

Second novella ‘Woo Me’ is about Jen Tremaine; prickly and disillusioned with love – until she turns up to the Outback Bachelor and Spinster Ball with her two best friends, and keeps running into sexy security guard Logan Turner … he’s an ex-Special Forces soldier and their chemistry is electric.

Third and final is Sarah Mayberry’s ‘Wait For Me’, about Beth Walker who is coming off heartbreak and scandal after it was revealed that her country music star husband had been cheating on her, and for a long time. She’s leaving America and coming home to Australia, and her two besties – Jen and Ellie – who are keen to help Beth mend her broken heart. But the person who really ends up helping is an old friend called Jonah Masters, rising country music star and someone Beth shared a connection with many years ago …

Tying all three novellas together is the women’s friendship, and the B&S ball that acts as the setting to their ‘Stella Got Her Groove Back’ moments;

He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply pulled her close, tightening his arms around her and resting his cheek on the top of her head. No woman had ever felt so right, so at home in his arms and he figured he would be chasing this feeling for the rest of his life, always trying to find the same sense of peace and belonging.

—   Wait For Me by Sarah Mayberry

I rather enjoyed these rural romance reads – some a little more than others – but I do think that each one had a hand in chipping away at my rural romance hang-ups. I liked that the women’s friendship was the foundation for the series, and that the authors went into the more ludicrous aspects of the famed B&S ball – arguably, that dose of reality didn’t endear me to rural romance settings, but I appreciated the honesty.

Sarah Mayberry’s ‘Wait For Me’ was my favourite of the novellas – arguably because it has that cheating spouse storyline I weirdly like (I’m in the romance-reading minority on this one, trust me – I know) and probably because it had that hint of a ‘Nashville’ storyline with the country music scene (I admit: I went to a Keith Urban place … not a bad place to be, at all). I loved that Mayberry drew out Beth and Jonah’s complicated history, and I always love a good ‘Sliding Doors’ second chances romance.

‘The Outback Bachelor Ball’ is a pretty great little bundle of rural romance – and I’m saying that as someone for whom this is not her go-to subgenre! My overall rating probably more reflects that I thought the first two books were okay, but Mayberry's was more of a 4/5 for me ... so I'm splitting the difference. 

3.5/5

'Brothers Ink' series by Sarah Mayberry

***This is a combined review of books 1 & 2 in Sarah Mayberry’s ‘Brothers Ink’ romance series***

I have a new favourite romance author and her name is Sarah Mayberry. I first discovered her via one of her Harlequin titles ‘Her Best Friend’ which I inhaled in a day, and from there I’ve been reading anything I can get my hands on from this Australian romance author. I have become quite the fangirl, to the point that I flipped out when I met her at the recent Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) – and, yes, she is absolutely lovely! I’ve been reading her so much lately that I haven’t been able to keep pace reviewing the books of hers I’ve been reading. Hence, why I’m doing a mega joint-review of the first two books in her latest series …

‘Brothers Ink’ is her independent erotica/romance series – first book ‘Satisfaction’ was released February 2014, and second book ‘Anticipation’ has just been released, and Ms Mayberry was kind enough to send me a sneaky advance copy to review.

‘Brothers Ink’ is the name of a high-end tattoo parlour owned by Brazilian twins Rafael and Eddie Oliveira. ‘Satisfaction’ has us meeting Rafael at the same time as local bookstore owner, Maggie Hendrick who’s heard good things about what this sex-God can do for women in the bedroom. This is important to Maggie, who has never been sexually satisfied– neither with herself or partners – and she’s banking on this kinky tattoo artist being the key that unlocks her door … but in a comedy of errors, Maggie meets the wrong twin and offers him a temptation like no other.

 And while she was at it, damn herself for being unable to enjoy the seduction of a lifetime without getting emotionally involved. Frankly, she was a disgrace to the Sex and the City generation. 

—Satisfaction, Brothers Ink book #1

‘Satisfaction’ is all about Maggie and Rafael – the more straight-laced of the Oliveira twins, who is still nursing a broken-heart after his long-term girlfriend up and left him. Maggie is the first woman to turn his head since Lena trampled all over him, and he’s surprised to find himself responding to her in a way that both scares and excites him.

Second book ‘Anticipation’ is all about the more outgoing twin, Eddie – who has quite the reputation for heartbreaking himself. Eddie doesn’t do commitment, which is bad news for his best-friend and Brothers Ink tattoo artist Blue Sullivan, because she’s been in love with him for years … but a life in and out of foster homes means that Blue’s not about to give her heart to a man who can’t commit, and she’s certainly not going to lose the only family she has left for a bedroom romp (no matter how earth-shattering it may be).

I love, love, love this series. It’s a fantastic balance of erotica and romance with some complicated back-stories adding fraught emotional dilemmas for the characters. I can tell you (having now discovered Mayberry’s extensive backlist) that that’s one of her real strengths – interesting and intense characterisation that has you totally rooting for these characters.

Both Maggie and Blue have their own hang-ups that stop them from accepting and believing Rafael and Eddie’s attraction to them … for Maggie, it’s a lifetime being the one responsible for all those around her (her mother’s cancer diagnosis when she was a child means Maggie is always running doomsday scenarios in her head). While the death of her parents, and her subsequent stays in foster homes, has resulted in Blue enforcing tall walls that guard her heart against further devastation.

“I have never done this with another woman. Ever. But I’m willing to acknowledge that I have a past. So do you.” 

“Not like yours. I don’t charm people into loving me and then abandon them.” 

“That’s right – you don’t even let them get close enough to get attached.” 

“Because I don’t want that.” 

“Sweetheart, you want that more than anyone I know.” 

—Anticipation, Brothers Ink book #2

Rafael and Eddie are not without their emotional blockades and intense back-stories either. Both brothers suffered after the loss of their beloved little sister (who now occupies a place on their bodies, in the form of a tribute tattoo) and while polar opposites personality-wise, both men have had incidents in their pasts that they need to overcome in order to accept Maggie and Blue’s love into their lives … or, at least fight hard enough to convince both women to accept them.

I just fell head-over-heels for these characters, and even from ‘Satisfaction’ I loved the camaraderie and sense of family that Mayberry evoked at the Brothers Ink tattoo parlour. I understand there are more books coming in this series – and with Brothers Ink as the pivot-point, I can’t wait to read more characters stepping onto the scene, and finding out about secondary characters that appear in ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Anticipation’.

The ‘Brothers Ink’ series also balances romance and erotica perfectly. These characters have real heat and friction between them – for Maggie and Rafael it’s the meeting of strangers who have an instant attraction, while Blue and Eddie’s romance is built on the solid foundations of a friendship and frustrations of unrequited love. The next character to be explored in the series is pretty heavily hinted at in ‘Anticipation’, her story lined up … and I’ve got to say, I can’t wait to see how this once-antagonist is transformed in a book of her own.

I’ve really only recently discovered Sarah Mayberry, but she’s already climbed the ranks to be one of my favourite romance authors. Her ‘Brothers Ink’ series is a fantastic introduction to her writing – an electric blend of erotica and romance, with intense characters that’ll make you blush and swoon in equal measure.

5/5

   

‘Her Best Friend’ by Sarah Mayberry

From the BLURB:

What’s a girl to do when she’s secretly in love with a friend and he’s married to someone else? She gets over it. That’s what Amy Parker has done. Rather than lose her best bud Quinn Whitfield with an ill-timed, crazy confession of attraction, she’s taken the smart route. She’s eased away from him. Just enough to get past the unrequited bits. And, you know, it’s working.

Until the day Quinn announces he’s now single. That’s right. He’s single. And he wants to hang out. With her. Get reconnected the way they used to be.

Oh, this is so not good for Amy’s equilibrium. Daily doses of Quinn remind her of everything she loves about him. But if he’s free...and she’s free...well, maybe the time has come for one of those crazy confessions.

Amy Parker is about to fulfil her childhood dream of owning Daylesford’s Grand Picture Theatre, that her grandfather built before she was born. There’s just one big bureaucratic hurdle she needs to jump through, and unfortunately her two best friends are just the lawyers to help her.

Lisa and Quinn Whitfield moved to Sydney after they got married, joining a big law firm and living the high-life in the city. Quinn and Amy grew up together, and Lisa joined their trio as a teenager, but eventually Lisa and Quinn became more than friends and now they’re one of those sickeningly sweet high school sweetheart couples. And Amy is happy for them, that they seem to have the perfect marriage and idyllic work/home life, even while she’s avoided talking to them for the last year … because Amy has been in love with Quinn since they were fourteen.

For years she waited for her best friend to notice her, and then Lisa came along and whisked a teenage Quinn off his feet with an itty-bitty red bikini.

Amy was happy that they were happy, and was even best man/bridesmaid at their wedding. But once they moved to Sydney she decided to edge them out of her life completely – let go of her doomed crush and the guilt she’d been feeling for lying by omission to her best friend.

But after one innocent phone-call to Quinn asking for advice with the Grand, next thing she knows he’s flying down to Melbourne and offering to spend his vacation days in Daylesford, helping her renovate the rundown place … because it turns out Quinn and Lisa’s idyllic life has been anything but, and they’re currently separated and heading for divorce.

Now Quinn is home, for four weeks, and single once again. Amy’s unrequited love might suddenly have a chance, if she’s willing to take it?

‘Her Best Friend’ is a 2010 Harlequin romance novel from Australian author Sarah Mayberry.

Sometimes when you’re in a reading-rut you turn to the old faithfuls for brain candy – Harlequin, Mills & Boon – and you go looking for your favourite story tropes. For me, it’s unrequited love stories and if it’s unrequited love stories between friends I go to my happy reading place. So when I recently found myself in a reading-rut I turned to Goodreads and Listopia to find my perfect book cure … which is how I found Sarah Mayberry and ‘Her Best Friend’.

First of all – what rock have I been living under that this is my first Sarah Mayberry read? This author is beloved in the romance community and the Australian romance community especially – she’s also been a scriptwriter for TV show ‘Neighbours’. After I read ‘Her Best Friend’ I bought a couple more Sarah Mayberry books and tore through all of them in a matter of days – I am now a full-fledged fangirl.

Part of the reason I love unrequited love stories is the immediate tension and emotional stakes for the characters – and because, outlandish as romance storylines can sometimes get, readers can all sympathise and understand the complications of loving someone who doesn’t love you back/know that you exist. It’s pretty easy for an author to get me hooked just with the premise of an unrequited love story, but Mayberry really had me rooting for Amy and getting emotionally invested in her story. When we meet her she is reluctantly calling on Quinn and Lisa for legal advice – and we learn the reason she’s been dodging phone-calls from her best friends ever since they moved to Sydney last year. In love with her best friend since the age of 14 and having to be best [wo]man at his wedding is about as painfully unrequited as it gets.

She was too afraid to find out there really was no hope. She preferred to live in a kind of never-never land where she could angst over Quinn but still indulge the fantasy that one day, maybe, if the moon and planets were all aligned, he might possibly return her feelings.

One potential downfall of the unrequited love story is loving the romantic underdog, but being frustrated or unconvinced of the person they’ve been mooning over for years. Not so with Quinn – and that’s partly because Mayberry ensured he had his own interesting emotional back-story and teased out his and Amy’s years of friendship. I completely understood why Amy was so invested in her love for Quinn, even after all these years, because he was a pretty great guy.

I also love Sarah Mayberry books because she’s damn funny. Injections of humours amongst all the emotional turmoil are always appreciated, and Mayberry has a particularly good funny bone:

“Is there somebody out there? Amy, is that you?” her mother called. 

“No. Tell me this isn’t happening.” Quinn rested his forehead against hers. “Has she got a wiretap on you or something? I swear, she’s like a walking hard-on detector.” 

Amy bit her lip, trying not to laugh. 

Quinn levered himself up on his arms.“Mrs. P., if you value your life, you’ll go back inside and turn off the light right now.” 

Since finishing ‘Her Best Friend’ I’ve read three more Mayberry books, and with all of them I find myself wishing for an extra five chapters or so … just because I so want to spend more time with her characters. I’ve definitely found a new go-to author for my romance reading cravings.

5/5