Ellen March - Love on the Menu - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Jago Tanner is a loner. He works up a good hunger at his outdoors pursuits centre in Wales and looks upon each female conquest as just another meal. When he’s sated, he doesn’t go back for dessert. Until Riley shows up. A Londoner hired through an agency to assist him with activities, she isn’t at all what he asked for. For starters, with the name Riley, he expected a man. But Riley is all woman—the sexiest woman Jago has ever laid eyes on. Unfortunately she dresses like a trollop and curses like a sailor. Though ignorant about most outdoors pursuits, she’s a skilled horsewoman, able to calm even his nerviest stallion. And her lively and generous nature enchants his housekeeper Emily and his ancient friend, Tom.

In short, Jago’s new employee is a bundle of contradictions. Which is why, when Jago falls for her, he doesn’t trust his feelings. Riley seems unusually accident prone, and when her brother’s shady friends menace her, she plays the innocent. But how can anyone so self-sufficient and mouthy also be so trusting and naïve? And can a man with Jago’s volatile nature endure the jealousy a woman like Riley provokes just by strolling down the street?

My Review

Romance novels are meant to be fun, silly even. They're an escape from reality. It's a world where the volume on life is turned all the way up. Personalities are huge. Every action has major consequences. Love is the motivating force behind every behavior. Well, love and sex.

Case in point, Riley's a gal who has no shame talking about wet dreams and hormonal imbalances in front of a man. While Jago's the guy who is wound so tight he can't react to anything without throwing a punch or biting someone's head off. She's the lit flame to his fuse. They go at each other like cats and dogs. He's rude and she's crude, yet somehow they can't stop fantasizing about each other.

Of course, Jago's a millionaire who inherited his heartless uncle's estate in the middle of the Welsh countryside. To increase his financial worth, he's also a crack investor, who makes a killing on the stock market. He doesn't have to work, but he operates the property as an outdoor recreation center for businessmen, scout groups and girl time weekends because he loves being out in nature. He's the rough and tumble guy who's just aching to be fulfilled even though he doesn't know it yet.

Riley, on the other hand, is the penniless scrapper, just hoping to get by. Yet, she's not a hustler or a swindler. She's a virgin with a heart of gold. Her brother conducts nefarious drug deals and she even worked in a gentlemen's club, but she never took her clothes off. She's innocent but she's obsessed with sex, even though she never had it. The second she meets Jago, she knows she wants to give her virginity to him because the guy is such a stud.

It's the type of behavior most readers would roll their eyes at if confronted with in real life, but in fiction it's readily forgiven. At heart it encapsulates all of the fantasies we want to believe are possible. The dastardly rogue who beds as many women as he can, just because he's lonely and misunderstood. Until bam the right woman comes along and sets him on the right course. Then from there on out he's all about monogamy, marriage and babies.

What sets this fairy tale apart is that the author, Ellen March, really sells the melodrama. It's soap opera-esque, but she pens a thrillingly passionate ride. There's sex on a mountain. There's a bedroom door broken down. There's a playtime in the shower. And that's just the hot and heavy stuff. Don't forget about the near drowning, almost snake bite and two attempted rapes on Riley's honor by two different men (and no, one of them isn't Jago).

This book's got it all and then some. If you want a read that'll take you out of the day-to-day norm, then this is it.

***

Love on the Menu can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble 
Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Pages: 244
Genre: Steamy Cowboy Romance
Release: February 14, 2015
Publisher: Fanny Press
ISBN: 9781603815680
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About the Author

Ellen March and her husband live on top of a mountain in Wales, which is ideal in the summer but not so much in the winter months or when it rains. She has three grown children, one suicidal cat--it really does have nine lives--and three Alaskan Malamutes. One of her hobbies is showing and working them. Ellen's first love, however, is reading and writing. Since childhood, she has devoured every romance and fantasy she can get her hands on and enjoys acting out her own fantasies in print. Her body of work includes erotic romance, psychological thrillers, and supernatural fantasies. Fanny Press has published three of her erotic romances--Promises, His Girl Friday, and A Ghost of an Affair--and will be publishing more in 2015 and beyond.

Links to connect with Ellen:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

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