Tag Archives: High Stakes

High Stakes (Kings and Rivals 2) by Nana Malone-review tour

Posted on by
13

High Stakes (Kings and Rivals 2) by Nana Malone-review tour

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 15, 2025

A marriage of convenience is the only way to get her back…and to keep her safe.

The beautiful Morgan doesn’t need to know how dangerous the NYC waters have become. She doesn’t need to know that old family debts have come to be settled.

She doesn’t need to know the way I’ve longed for her. We can keep things cordial…at least until night falls.

The more time we spend together, the more I come to crave her. Another one of her laughs. A smile. And god, a kiss. I’ve become addicted to my own wife.

I lost her once. I won’t lose her again.

She hates me for the secrets I’ve kept. But beneath that hatred burns a passion neither of us can deny. In my arms, she remembers what we once had. In my bed, she forgets why she ever left.

As threats close in from all sides, I’ll risk everything to protect what’s mine. Because some bonds can never be broken, some hearts can never truly be separated, and some loves are simply… inevitable.

•••••

REVIEW: HIGH STAKES is the second instalment in Nana Malone’s contemporary, adult KINGS AND RIVALS, dark, erotic, crime family romance series focusing on twenty year old, fashion designer Morgan Crispin Becker, and billionaire businessman Lance Lakewood DeLuc. HIGH STAKES should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up after the events of book one DEEP POCKETS, and is set in the author’s KINGS OF THE BOARDROOM world.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Lance and Morgan) HIGH STAKES picks up after the events and cliff hanger of book one DEEP POCKETS. Lance Lakewood has loved Morgan Becker for as long as he can remember but a betrayal cost him the only woman he would ever loved. Determined to make amends Lance finds himself become guardian and protector of our story line heroine when his past demands everything and more. Threats to Morgan’s life finds Lance on the defensive, only to realize that love may never be enough.

The world building follows the revelations of secrets that threaten Lance’s relationship with Morgan, and his friendships with her sister Gwen. Ten years of lies finds Lance on the precipice of losing everyone including the only woman he has every loved.

The relationship between Lance and Morgan is acrimonious at best but threats against Morgan forces our couple into a marriage of convenience, a marriage meant to protect our heroine from harm. The $ex scenes are erotic, provocative and intense.

Once again, there is a large ensemble cast of colorful, familiar and determined secondary and supporting characters including Morgan’s sister Gwen and her husband Atticus (Kings of the Boardroom): fixer Silas McGill, Atticus’ brother Micah: Lance’s brother Hector, and their father Charles; fashion promoter Adele Beekman,and Morgan’s assistant Amber. The requisite evil has many faces.

HIGH STAKES is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, power and control, forgiveness and love. The character driven premise is dark, dramatic and intense; the romance is impassioned and seductive; the characters are desperate, dangerous, resolute and struggling. HIGH STAKES ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one DEEP POCKETS

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Follow: Goodreads / Website/ Amazon Author/ Bookbub/ Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram /

USA Today bestseller Nana Malone’s love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she “borrowed” from her cousin.

It was a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana, and Nana was a precocious thirteen. She’s been in love with kick butt heroines ever since. With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters.

While she waits for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, in the meantime Nana works out her drama, passion, and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is.

Share

High Stakes (High Mountain Trackers ) by Freya Barker-review tour

Posted on by
12

High Stakes (High Mountain Trackers 2 ) by Freya Barker-review tour

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /Apple /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 18, 2022.

When her sister, Pippa, goes missing, Nella Freling tells her boss she’s taking time off from her job as a research librarian, hops in her sensible van, and heads south of the border to Montana. However, local police don’t seem too concerned about a missing woman living in her motorhome. So Nella will have to look for Pippa by herself, unless she can convince a highly recommended tracker to help her, but sadly the rude and angry cowboy won’t even listen to her at first.

But Nella can be persuasive.

The first time High Mountain Tracker, Fletch Boone, laid eyes on Nella, her ass was stuck in his grocery cart. The next time was at the ranch; she was wearing mud, head to toe. But when he catches sight of her a third time, hanging off a cliff, he can’t turn his back again. What Nella lacks in survival skills she makes up for in sheer determination. Unfortunately, neither of those is enough protection when bullets start flying.

Fletch has no choice but to jump in before the woman gets herself killed.

And that would be a damn shame.

•••••

REVIEW:HIGH STAKES is the second instalment in Freya Barker’s contemporary, adult HIGH MOUNTAIN TRACKERS erotic, romantic suspenses series focusing on a group for former US Special Forces soldiers who own and work for High Mountain Trackers in Montana. This is forty-seven year old Fletch Boone, and forty-three year old researcher Nella Freling’s story line. HIGH STAKES can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Fletch and Nella) HIGH STAKES follows the search for missing Canadian hiker Pippa Freling. Nella Freling hasn’t heard from her sister in close to fourteen days, and with the advise of a friend, Nella arrives in Montana only to be greeted by a grumpy former warrior who wants nothing to do with our story line heroine but searching on her own means falling victim to the elements, and Fletch refuses to let another ‘hiker’ go missing on his watch. A sudden storm traps Nella and Fletch in a cave overnight but the discovery of tracks and some blood lead our couple to Nella’s missing but injured sister. As Nella struggles to make sense of what happened and why, our heroine begins an investigation of her own in the hopes of finding her sister’s RV, only to discover that all is not well in Libby, Montana. What ensues is the building relationship between Nella and Fletch, and the potential fall-out as the search for the truth places a target on our heroine’s back.

Fletch Boone doesn’t do relationships, and prefers to work on his own but a feisty woman with more energy than sense throws Fletch for a loop, and our hero knows that to leave Nella to her own devises could blow up in both of their faces. At every turn Nella is defying Fletch, and the local law enforcement, and in doing so finds herself risking her life to take down the people responsible.

The relationship between Fletch and Nella begins acrimoniously. Fletch doesn’t want anything to do with our story line heroine, or searching for a woman who is probably not lost but evidence begins to surface about the possibility of something much more dangerous going on, and Fletch refuses to let Nella go on her own. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

The secondary and supporting characters include ranch and High Mountain Trackers owner Jonas Harvey and his wife Alexandra Hart; Jonas’ teammates James Watike and his wife Ama, Bo, Sully Eckhart, as well as Jonas’ father Thomas Harvey. We are introduced to Nella’s sister Pippa. The requisite evil has many faces. Pippa and Sully’s story is next in HIGH GROUND.

HIGH STAKES is a story of family and friendships, love and desperation, betrayal and vengeance, acceptance and love. The premise is edgy, dramatic and entertaining; the romance is seductive and tender; the characters are sassy, energetic and determined.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one HIGH MEADOW

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.

Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!

Facebook: http://bit.ly/FreyaFacebook
Twitter: http://bit.ly/FreyaTwitter
Instagram: http://bit.ly/FreyaInstagram
Web: http://bit.ly/FreyaWeb
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/FreyaGoodreads
Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/Freya_Newsletter
Bookbub: http://bit.ly/FreyaBookBub

Share

High Stakes by Danielle Steel – a Review

Posted on by
10

High Stakes by Danielle Steel – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Book Depository

 

Description:
Jane Addison is an ambitious young woman with big dreams of owning her own company someday. At twenty-eight, she arrives in New York to start a job at Fletcher and Benson, a prestigious talent agency. Eager to impress her new colleagues, Jane jumps right in as an assistant to Hailey West, one of the agents in the literary department.

Hailey is dedicated to the authors she represents, but her home life is chaotic and challenging. After her husband’s tragic and untimely death, she was left widowed with three children to raise on her own.
Then there’s Francine Rivers, the stern and accomplished head of the literary department. Also a single mom after her husband’s affair with the nanny, she has overcome the resulting financial hardships, but only with unbearable sacrifice.

Compared to Hailey and Francine, drama agent Allie Moore’s life seems much more carefree and uncomplicated. She relishes her success and loves working with the talented actors they represent—until a passionate relationship with one of her rising star clients threatens to derail her career.
Merriwether Jones is the CFO for the agency. She appears to have it all–beauty, success, and a perfect marriage until her husband’s jealousy over her career threatens to blow everything up.

Even though she’s a newcomer, Jane quickly realizes that there are damaging secrets hidden behind the doors of Fletcher and Benson. As one of the youngest employees, she has the least power, but is also the least willing to accept things as they have been for years. When she puts everything on the line to right these wrongs, the consequences will leave no one unscathed.

In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel tells the story of a group of remarkable women navigating the challenges of balancing their families, their personal lives and the high stakes of ambition at the top of their game.

 

 

Review:

High Stakes by Danielle Steel is another one of her wonderful stand-alone novels. Jane Addison has just graduated and dreams of one day owning her own publishing company; she takes an entry level job at Fletcher and Benson, a well-known literary and entertainment agency.  She is assigned to be an assistant to Hailey West, one of the best agents in the Literary department. To Jane’s dismay, she immediately encounters, Dan Fletcher, one of the co-founders of the agency, as he makes lewd remarks about her; she recognizes that he is a predator.  Jane will avoid him as much as possible, even though he continues to make sexual attempts on her, and she threatens to report him.   Jane discovers that most of the women try to stay clear of Fletcher, and despite their disgrace, no one reports him, as they fear for their jobs. 

We also meet the other wonderful women of the company. Hailey is at the top of her career, being a successful literary agent.  She is widowed, and has three children, and constantly struggles to keep up with her job, as well as take care of her children.

Francine Rivers is in charge of the literary department, and she is divorced with two children. Even though she has a good paying job, Francine also struggles with both work and home.  We learn quickly that Fletcher over a number of years, has forced Francine to have sex with him twice a week, stressing if she doesn’t, he will have her fired.

Allie Moore, is in charge of the entertainment department, dealing with actors and actresses; she loves her job, always dining out with many of them.  When she falls in love with one of the younger actors, she is warned it could hurt her reputation, as she is older than him.  Allie refuses to stop seeing Eric, but becomes concerned that her reputation could be tarnished.

Merriweather Jones, is the CFO of the company, and is very well liked by everyone. Her marriage is on the rocks, as her husband stays home and takes care of their daughter.  She loves her job, and dreads going home, as her husband is always belligerent.

When Fletcher accosts Jane again, pushing her against the wall, she goes to a lawyer to claim sexual harassment. Fletcher is charged, and tries to buy her off, which she refuses.  In a short time, a few others in the company will also add their voices to the sexual harassment fight.

What follows is a wonderful story of five very talented woman who supported each other, especially in this ‘me too movement’.  For most of the women, they all have their own issues, not necessarily the sexual harassment, but struggling with family and financially, marriages falling apart, love, respect, and threats against them.

High Stakes was a fabulous story focusing on not only social issues in life, as well as in the job. I have been very impressed with Danielle Steel’s more recent books which are not only interesting, but willing to cover various issues.  High Stakes was very well written by Danielle Steel, as she gives us a glimpse of hidden things women may face in the workplace.   Very well done.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

Share