Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Release Blitz: Sleepless in Las Vegas By Colleen Collins


Title: Sleepless in Las Vegas
Author: Colleen Collins
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: December 3, 2013
Hosted by: Tasty Book Tours

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050861-sleepless-in-las-vegas


After nearly destroying each other’s careers, PI-intern Val    LeRoy and seasoned Las Vegas P.I. Drake Morgan are forced to work together.  If each had their way, they’d walk, but when threatened by a dangerous criminal who jeopardizes their lives and families, they put aside their differences to solve the case.  As the hunt for the truth intensifies and their passion rivals the triple-digit temperature, Val and Drake learn why Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps….


Scene where Val and Drake first meet
Setting: Las Vegas - Dino's bar


Picking up his smartphone, Drake tapped the alarm app and set it for two a.m., which would give him time to get back to the strip club, Topaz, by three. If his brother's Porsche was there, he would go inside. But if he found the Russian gangster's Yuri’s Benz at Topaz, he'd wait and follow Yuri to wherever he went next. Sooner or later, he’d find some dirt on that Russian.
The scrape of bar stool legs against the floor interrupted his thoughts.
In the mirror behind the bar, he observed a young woman taking the seat next to him. Even in this dim lighting, her hair gleamed like metal. Dye job or a wig. She wore so much eye make-up, he
couldn’t tell if her eyes were brown, black or gray.
His gaze dropped to her top, two triangles of material that sheathed round, pert breasts. A flicker of heat leapt in his chest as he caught the outline of taut nipples, one straining a triangle decorated with white stars on blue, the other overworking a triangle with red-and-white stripes.
She looked like a fourth of July celebration about to pop.
“Like my top?” she asked in a southern drawl.
With Sally, he’d been rusty at interpreting female signals, but he picked up hers more clearly than if she’d banged a gong in his ear. Just the kind of wake-up call to get outside of his funk, get back to the present.
“It goes with my skirt,” she continued as though it were a two-way conversation.
He knew better than to look, but it was like telling Bambi to stay out of the forest. The skirt was thigh-high and red. Below it, shapely legs in fishnet stockings ended in a pair of black stiletto heels with some kind of symbol on the side.
“It’s a fleur de lis,” she explained, pointing down at her shoe with a frosty-pink fingernail, “for my boys, the Saints.”
Took him a moment. “The New Orleans Saints?”
“Who dat!” She grinned so wide, he saw she had a slightly crooked front tooth, which almost gave her a sweet, naïve quality.
The operative word being almost. Sweet, naïve types didn’t wear fishnet stockings, stiletto heels and small, tight triangles into dive bars.
Clunk.
He looked stupidly down at his phone lying on the floor.
“I’ll get it,” she said cheerfully.
“No--”
But she’d already scooted off her stool, a mass of red and fleshy curves and stars and stripes…and it was all he could to sit there and stare.
She straightened slowly, a funny look on her face.
He held out his hand for the phone.
But she didn’t return it. Instead, she shifted closer, so close he could see that her
eyes were brown. A rich, warm color, like melting caramel. He eased in a slow breath, caught her scent. Fresh and soapy, as though she’d just stepped out of a shower. Surprising. These girls usually poured on the perfume.
“I’m getting a pulsation,” she whispered.
Took him a moment to realize it was an incoming call. “I don’t like ringtones,” he growled. “Keep it on vibrate. Give it to me.”
“Not a call. It’s a pulsation…” She waggled her fingers in the air. “From out there.”
He paused. “Through my phone.”
She nodded. “I’m getting a message.”
Message. He glanced back down at her outfit. Was she a stripper from Topaz? Had someone, like his brother Brax who managed the place, sent her over to deliver a message to him?
“From Braxton?”
“Who?”
“Yuri?”
“I…don’t know a Yuri...I think it’s from…your father.”
Drake felt numb, frozen. Couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Finally, something inside thawed enough for him to speak.
“Impossible,” he rasped. His heart banged so hard and fast, his chest ached.
But she was off someplace else. She swiveled slowly on her stool, her head tipped as though listening to a faraway tune.
“He says he loves you very much.” She smiled at him.
Enough! As though jolted back to life by an electric prod, he bolted upright and blew out a lungful of air.
“Give me the damn phone.” He snatched it from her hand. He didn’t need this. Not from some whacked, high-woo-woo messenger. Was this Yuri’s idea of a sick joke?
Those big brown eyes implored him. “I didn’t mean to--”
“How much?”
“How much what?”
“How much money did they give you to play this game?”
She opened her slick red lips to say something, but nothing came out.The way she lowered her thick black lashes, then raised them slowly made him think of a theater curtain. He wondered what show he was going to see next. She acted like some kind of psychic nut, but he got the sense she was a lot sharper than she let on. “What you claim to have heard could not have been my father because…” He paused, swallowed back an ache he’d been fighting all day. “He’s dead.”

 

5 Awesome Sizzling Stars
***Very small spoilers***
So this book completely took me by surprise. I went into it thinking oh easy romantic read. What I got was a freaking suspenseful heartfelt passionate thrill! From the first page it sucked me in and I just didn't want to stop reading. I kept saying housework, chores, ..well they gotta wait so I would dive back in and I just enjoyed every page.
Val was a Katrina survivor, probably the first thing that spoke to me since I am a born and raised Louisiana girl. She had to completely start over and she was so strong and kept persevering after losing everything she had including her precious grandmother. It wasn't an easy thing to do. She wanted to be a PI so badly and her mentor suddenly tells her some startling news where Drake comes into play. Jayne had cancer and was leaving Val in the hands of stubborn as hell Drake. But well Val and Drake had a little bit of history in recent events up to this first "formal" meeting.  Their relationship started rocky and just kept getting rockier. The thing about Val and Drake was that the chemistry was sizzling from the their very first interaction. Drake was dealing with the anniversary of his father's death and so many other things happen to him in this book that he actually would have to be superman to not get a little irritable a time or two. His family meant everything to him.
There were so many other great characters. Val's best friends and Drakes mom and grandmother. Those interactions just made me love these characters and feel like I really connected with them.

This love story grew on each page and I was mad with them, I laughed with them and I cried with them. Val couldn't fight her feelings for Drake. She just was afraid to open up. But every time they got together they learned more and more about each other and she just fell farther.

As they held each other’s gaze, she felt a fluttering

inside, imagining how it would be to face him like

this, look into his eyes, day after day for the rest of

her life.

I love sex in a story ..after all I made a blog called Sizzling Pages but this book wasn't about the sizzle for me. This was about a beautiful love story involving two people that need someone who would stand beside them and trust them. Drake was a stubborn man and he did stupid things but he always came around and fessed up to make it right. When this strong sexy alpha opened his heart I swooned. When they finally set the pages on fire it was emotional and deeply intimate.


There were so many funny moments. I mean I must've laughed out loud so many times my kids thought I was going crazy (or crazier). Val was snarky and had genuine New Orleans sass. I loved it. Colleen brought authentic flavor to this story with Val's personality. I felt almost like I knew Val. Drake grew on me until I wanted to reach in and just squeeze him to death. I recommend this book to all those die hard romantics. This one will keep you flipping the pages.




http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DPABB6E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DPABB6E&linkCode=as2&tag=sizzpageromar-20http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleepless-Vegas-Harlequin-Super-Romance/dp/0373718934
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sleepless-in-las-vegas-colleen-collins/1115566121


 ($25.00 Amazon Gift Card)






https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=e038fdc591&view=att&th=14220e4738bedd7d&attid=0.2&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P9NupXz8XTZKzDhs76z9LwU&sadet=1383740623101&sads=AcZJfGu6whyNc0buM06nmSRe_KEColleen Collins is an award-winning author who has written several dozen novels for Harlequin and Dorchester, as well as three indie nonfiction books on private investigations and one indie mystery, The Zen Man. When not sleuthing, Colleen loves spending time with her husband, the two of them watching one of their favorite sports teams, taking walks with their two Rottweilers (named Jack Nicholson and Aretha Franklin) and herding their three cats.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/104928.Colleen_Collins
https://twitter.com/writingpis
http://writingpis.wordpress.com/


 

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