The Saucy Wenches Book Club

Her gaze latched onto his and he felt the connection between them like a physical thing. Molten metal waiting to become shaped; if he let it go cold, it would become an ugly, useless lump instead of the beautiful item he knew they were capable of creating together. She was a claymore's length away from him and it was still too far.

A Duke By Default
~~Alyssa Cole

You know how it goes: you get in a bit of a reading rut and nothing really feels right. All the books you read are itchy, and then you can't even bring yourself to pick anything up. So you browse your TBR looking for something you shelved ages ago but never got around to, and now you're hoping there's a treasure in the pile.

A few years ago I was deep into my discovery of dark romance and read a few Alessandra Torre novels, which I thoroughly enjoyed, when I shelved her then-latest, Moonshot, a baseball romance that wasn't right for me at the time. Fast forward a couple of years, I see that cover, remember wanting to read it, and check it out from my library's eBook catalog. Friends, it was exactly what I needed, an intense romance with that elusive something more, an unputdownable read that I devoured in about a day. Come with me through the jump and I'll tell you all about it. Except for the spoilery good stuff, of course. You need to read that yourself!

Certain loves can't be fought. The harder you tried, the harder you would be knocked back, over and over again, until it beat you into submission, until your heart caved and body surrendered. Love like that didn't know the rules of society; it didn't care about life mistakes. It only knew what must be, and what would happen—no matter what.

Moonshot
~~Alessandra Torre

In the corner house of an empty street, there is a boy inside a box. In that boy, there lives a secret, one so dark, it’s sealed with locks. 
Nearly ten years have passed since the night I was captured. Tricked and betrayed, I suffered the hours of brutal torment with death’s cold whisper across my skin. And when the nameless faces that haunted my nightmares took everything and everyone I loved, I feared I’d never be free of the darkness. But that's the thing about fear. Over time, it breeds anger, and when anger fills the box, vengeance bleeds out. 
It's been almost a decade since I escaped their hell, staying in the shadows, hiding my demons, and God help them now that I've tasted retribution and crave more of it. Blood is the price for pain, and I vow to take everything and everyone they love. I’m no longer a frightened boy, but the intrepid vigilante, a ruthless executioner, who will stop at nothing to punish the depraved few that stole my life and walked free. 
The plan …

"How was the penthouse?" Thabiso asked, changing the subject. "And I believe that you never wear the same suit twice in a row, but what have we here?" 

He tugged at her lapel, which bore a red stain of some sort. Lipstick?

"There is a term native to this region. I learned it last night. 'nunya." 

"Nunya?"

" 'Nunya business.' is the full colloquialism." 

A Princess in Theory
~~Alyssa Cole

Well-behaved women don’t lust after men who love to misbehave. 

Heiress Evangeline Chandler knows how to keep a secret . . . like her life-long crush on the tattooed hottie who just happens to be her big brother’s friend. She’s a Chandler, after all, and Chandlers don’t hook up with the help. Then again, they also don’t disobey their fathers and quit their respectable jobs, so good-girl rules may no longer apply.

Gabriel Hunter hides the pain of his past behind a smile, but he can’t hide his sudden attraction to his friend’s sheltered little sister. Eve is far too sweet to accept anything less than forever and there’s no chance of a future between the son of a housekeeper and the town’s resident princess.

When a wedding party forces Eve and Gabe into tight quarters, keeping their hands off each other will be as hard as keeping their clothes on. The need that draws them together is stronger than the forces that should shove them apart . . . but their sparks may not survive the explosion w…