FIRST TOUCH (Ex Cap Files 1) by Elsa Jade -a review

FIRST TOUCH (Ex Cap Files 1) by Elsa Jade -a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 20, 2023

She lost her childhood and her mother on a wild journey through a jungle deep and dark—now she is losing what’s left…
Freelance illustrator Cecily Serrao has painted herself into a corner—and she likes it there. She has her pastel watercolors, her tiny Portland apartment with nice indirect lighting, and just enough work to let her drift through her perfect quiet life.
Until a supersecret agent with eyes as brilliant gold as the deadly jaguars that haunt her dreams tells her she’s missing one thing: herself.
Ronan Conrad joined the First Responders: Extrasensory Capabilities Unit—freaks for short—to atone for his troubled, misspent youth. When unknown forces as covert as any of his unit’s ops threaten ExCap’s mission, the lieutenant guide controller who usually handles other agents with power and precision finds himself hunting the shadows on his own.
Alone until he finds her: subtle, strong, stubborn—and a cruel reminder of his worst failure, why he can never let anyone too close ever again.
They only share an enemy, and even as a dangerous desire ignites between them in all the reckless hues of passion and peril, they know anything more intimate is impossible. But the freaks of ExCap specialize in the impossible as they fight to survive…FIRST TOUCH.

•••••••

REVIEW: FIRST TOUCH is the first instalment in Elsa Jade’s contemporary, adult EX CAP FILES extrasensory, paranormal, action thriller focusing on the men and women who work at Ex Cap, a covert ops group known as First Responders: Extrasensory Capabilities Unit aka FREAKS. This is freelance illustrator Cecily Serrao, and guide controller Lieutenant Ronan Conrad’s story line.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Ronan and Cecily) FIRST TOUCH follows Cecily Serrao in the wake of the unexpected discovery of her missing corporeal body. A visit to the local grocery store finds Cecily facing Lieutenant Ronan Conrad, a member of Ex Cap, a division of FREAKS, and the man who will help find our heroine’s body. Cecily Serrao is a ‘ghost walker’ with the ability to project her spirit; etheric projection remote viewing with some intermittent psychokinesis-in other words, Cecily’s spirit can be projected into other places but Cecily’s body is missing, and her ‘ghost’ is found wandering at the local grocers. Ronan Conrad is a guide controller, and his duty is to help guide those with supernatural abilities but Cecily is unaware of the true nature of her powers, and Ronan is hoping to uncover the truth about what is happening and why. Working with Ronan, and other supernatural entities at Ex Cap, Cecily and Ronan will go on the hunt when Cecily’s ghost walking reveals a possible connection to a rogue division of Ex Cap. What ensues is the building relationship between Ronan and Cecily, and the potential fall-out when betrayal and madness threaten the people in control.

Cecily Serrao always knew she was something different having spent much of her childhood dealing with Shamans and medicine men in the South American jungles but ‘magic’ had always kept Cecily’s powers under control until she disappeared approximately three weeks earlier without memory of what happened or why. Ronan Conrad never expected to come face to face with an untrained person with the ability to project their spirit and manifest somewhere else. Most people with psychic powers had been corralled or tracked, and in this, Cecily could have been a danger to not only herself but everyone else. Having no idea where Cecily’s corporeal body was taken, Ronan and our heroine must divide themselves in an effort to discover the truth about what happened and why.

The relationship between Cecily and Ronan begins when Ronan finds Cecily at the local grocers. Cecily doesn’t suspect anything is wrong until she finds herself back at her apartment having no memory of what happened or why. With Ronan’s help, Cecily begins to search for answers to her ‘ghost walking’ powers, and the possibility that all is not right with the world of which Ronan works. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and magical secondary and supporting characters. We are introduced to Ronan’s co-workers: empath Rosalind Merrick; former Ex Cap Elvis; Colonel Sykes; Captain Brandon Pierce, as well as pyrokinetic Tennyson, and psychic/prescient Zahara Foy. The requisite evil has many faces.

FIRST TOUCH is a story of power and control, madness and delusion, betrayal and vengeance, acceptance and friendships. The premise is intriguing and entertaining, similar in sensation and atmosphere to the X-Men series. The characters are powerful and magical; the romance is seductive. A wonderful start to a new series.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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First Touch (First and Last #1) by Laurelin Paige-Review, Book Tour and Giveaway

FIRST TOUCH (First and Last #1) by Laurelin Paige-a review

 

 

 

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / The Book Depository / BAM

About the book: Release Date December 29, 2015

When Emily Wayborn goes home to visit her mom while on hiatus from her hit TV show, she receives a voicemail from her former best friend, Amber. Though the two were once notorious party girls, they haven’t spoken in years. Although the message might sound benign to anyone else, Amber uses a safe word that Emily recognizes, a word they always used to get out of sticky situations during their wild days. And what’s more chilling than the voicemail: it turns out that Amber has gone missing.

Determined to track down her friend, Emily follows a chain of clues that lead her to the enigmatic billionaire Reeve Sallis, a hotelier known for his shady dealings and play boy reputation. Now, in order to find Amber, Emily must seduce Reeve to learn his secrets and discover the whereabouts of her friend. But as she finds herself more entangled with him, she finds she’s drawn to Reeve for more than just his connection to Amber, despite her growing fear that he may be the enemy. When she’s forced to choose where her loyalty lies, how will she decide between saving Amber and saving her heart?

•••••••••

REVIEW: FIRST TOUCH is the first installment in Laurelin Paige’s contemporary, adult FIRST AND LAST dark, erotic romance series. This is actress Emily Wayborn, and billionaire hotel magnate Reeve Sallis’s storyline.

NOTE: The storyline contains triggers for some readers as it pertains to violence, rape, atypical sexual acts, and dubious consent.Some readers may be offended by some of the storyline content-you have been warned.

Told from first person point of view (Emily) FIRST TOUCH follows Emily Wayborn as she searches for the truth. Months earlier, our heroine, hears a phone message from a friend she hasn’t seen for close to seven years-a phone message using a safe word the friends had promised to use if ever they were in trouble. What ensues, is Emily’s hunt for the truth-a hunt that begins with the last person known to have seen Amber alive-billionaire hotelier Reeve Sallis. Emily will begin to seduce her way into Reeve’s life and his heart ensuring she has a front row seat when the truth is finally revealed.

FIRST TOUCH is a slow build to a suspense filled and intriguing cliff hanger that will only create more questions than answers; a dark, erotic romance that focuses on two people whose lives are interconnected through a missing woman-a woman Emily presumes to be dead. Emily and Reeve’s taste for the darker side of sex borders on deviance: fantasies that go beyond BDSM and role play; and questionable consent. Our leading couple straddles a fine line between right and wrong: trust must be earned; boundaries are pushed; control and power are at the center of all negotiations. While our heroine continues to search for the truth, she begins to lose herself to a man who is capable of destroying her world. So many clues are interspersed throughout the storyline premise.

Laurelin Paige pushes the reader into an unimaginable world; a place where our thoughts go but our heart does not belong; a story that will command your attention until the very end. But I want to add, that sometimes an author goes for ‘shock value’ in the storyline content, and I have to wonder if that is the purpose for some of the graphic imagery.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

 

 

Excerpt Black and Hot Pink

 

“Tell me something,” he said, overtly switching gears. “What’s with you and Chris Blakely?”
He’d been watching me at the Expo, then. Before he’d come outside after me.
His question about Chris was spoken casually, but it was purposeful. A more naïve woman might have missed it, but I was too experienced with men like him. He wanted me to know that I was in his sightline. That this was what it meant to be part of his life. That he would monitor me, if he felt like it; he’d rule me. And he expected me to submit.
I couldn’t decide if that freaked me out or thrilled me.
So I played coy. “He’s an actor. We’ve worked together on occasion. I guess we’re friends.”
I walked into the kitchen and got a glass from the cupboard. Chewing my lip, I filled it with filtered water from the sink and debated full disclosure regarding Chris…It was a long shot, but since I hoped to contact Chris for more information about Missy at some point, I decided the less I said the better.
I drank some of my water then set the glass down and leaned across the counter to watch Reeve. His fingers trailed across the spines. I couldn’t see the exact books, so I tried to think what was there. My Katherine Hepburn autobiography. My copy of Rebecca.
He stopped and pulled one from the shelf then flipped through it lazily. This one I recognized from the cover. PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, one of my coffee table books. I collected them and had so many that most lived on my bookshelf rather than on my coffee table. This particular book was a printing of blog posts that shared secrets anonymously. Parts of it read like my diary, and I’d marked several pages with Post-it notes so I could easily come back to them. Reading it had always felt comforting.
Seeing it in Reeve’s hands, though, wasn’t comforting. He flipped through the pages, stopping on the ones I’d tagged. Chuckling at some. Growing somber at others. At one, he lifted his head toward me and nodded slightly as if confirming what he’d just thought, what he’d just read.
I ran through several confessions I knew by heart, trying to imagine which it had been—
“Again and again. Used.”
“I’m more scared of court than I was when he almost killed me.”
“I would do absolutely anything in the whole world if I thought it would make her happy.”
Whichever ones he was reading, any of them—all of them—were private. Too private for him to know spoke to me. Yet, I didn’t stop him. I let him sink one layer deeper under my skin.
It was bad enough that he was in my apartment—in an apartment that I paid for myself. His presence reminded me of a time when everything I owned had been given to me by men. The things I had now, though small in number and worth, were all mine.
Trying to distract myself from the anxiety Reeve’s invasion caused, I asked, “Why do you want to know about Chris anyway? Do you want me to fix you up? He’s got a fiancé, you know.”
Reeve shot me a glare. “Cute.”
He put the book back on my shelf and moved toward me. When he reached the counter, he said, “Chris doesn’t look at you like he has a fiancé.”
Ah. I’d forgotten Reeve was a jealous man. Or I’d underestimated the depth of his envy. Strangely, it was a fairly common trait of the kind of men I’d involved myself with in the past, the kind of men who had everything. I knew how to pander to them, knew what to say to put their insecurities to rest. No one could ever be man enough to compare with you, I’d say. It might have been what Reeve was looking for in regards to Chris.
But I couldn’t bring myself to give it to him. “A lot of men don’t look at me like they have a fiancé.”
Reeve leaned across the opposite side of the counter so we were face-to-face. “I don’t like that.”
Jealousy was generally boring, yet, on Reeve, it was fascinating. And, I suspected, dangerous. “You don’t? What are you going to do about it? Lock me up and never let me out in public?”
“I have some nice secluded resorts I think you’d like. My island properties are so beautiful you’ll forget you’re in a prison.”
He flashed his dimple. It was subtle, only noticeable when he smiled in a certain way, the way he was smiling now. And his eyes…I’d thought they were blue, but now I saw green flecks. They caught in the light. They caught me in them, made me feel warm. Made me feel trapped.
I stood up straight, distancing myself without moving away. “Look at you. Acting as if you have some claim to me. I think I already blew you off the other night.”
“Look at you, acting as if I’m a person that you blow off. I think I already warned you about me.” He was teasing as I’d been. But he wasn’t all at the same time.
My heart skipped a beat. “Another threat?”
“If you want it to be.” He looked at me like he had earlier—that intent way that saw through me, into me. Saw all my dark parts.
In a way, he was showing me his darkness as well.
My lip quivered, but I wasn’t scared. Well, not scared enough. “I do.”
His eyes sparked, and with that simple phrase, we entered into an agreement. He would have me. He would fuck me. He would bring me into his world.
And in return I’d let him break me. 


 

About the Author Black and rose

Laurelin PaigeLaurelin Paige is the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Fixed Trilogy. She’s a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead, or dreaming of Michael Fassbender. She’s also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn’t do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio.

 

STALK HER:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

 

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First Touch (First and Last #1) by Laurelin Paige-a review

FIRST TOUCH (First and Last #1) by Laurelin Paige-a review

First Touch

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / The Book Depository / BAM

About the book: Release Date December 29, 2015

When Emily Wayborn goes home to visit her mom while on hiatus from her hit TV show, she receives a voicemail from her former best friend, Amber. Though the two were once notorious party girls, they haven’t spoken in years. Although the message might sound benign to anyone else, Amber uses a safe word that Emily recognizes, a word they always used to get out of sticky situations during their wild days. And what’s more chilling than the voicemail: it turns out that Amber has gone missing.

Determined to track down her friend, Emily follows a chain of clues that lead her to the enigmatic billionaire Reeve Sallis, a hotelier known for his shady dealings and play boy reputation. Now, in order to find Amber, Emily must seduce Reeve to learn his secrets and discover the whereabouts of her friend. But as she finds herself more entangled with him, she finds she’s drawn to Reeve for more than just his connection to Amber, despite her growing fear that he may be the enemy. When she’s forced to choose where her loyalty lies, how will she decide between saving Amber and saving her heart?

•••••••••

REVIEW: FIRST TOUCH is the first installment in Laurelin Paige’s contemporary, adult FIRST AND LAST dark, erotic romance series. This is actress Emily Wayborn, and billionaire hotel magnate Reeve Sallis’s storyline.

NOTE: The storyline contains triggers for some readers as it pertains to violence, rape, atypical sexual acts, and dubious consent.Some readers may be offended by some of the storyline content-you have been warned.

Told from first person point of view (Emily) FIRST TOUCH follows Emily Wayborn as she searches for the truth. Months earlier, our heroine, hears a phone message from a friend she hasn’t seen for close to seven years-a phone message using a safe word the friends had promised to use if ever they were in trouble. What ensues, is Emily’s hunt for the truth-a hunt that begins with the last person known to have seen Amber alive-billionaire hotelier Reeve Sallis. Emily will begin to seduce her way into Reeve’s life and his heart ensuring she has a front row seat when the truth is finally revealed.

FIRST TOUCH is a slow build to a suspense filled and intriguing cliff hanger that will only create more questions than answers; a dark, erotic romance that focuses on two people whose lives are interconnected through a missing woman-a woman Emily presumes to be dead. Emily and Reeve’s taste for the darker side of sex borders on deviance: fantasies that go beyond BDSM and role play; and questionable consent. Our leading couple straddles a fine line between right and wrong: trust must be earned; boundaries are pushed; control and power are at the center of all negotiations. While our heroine continues to search for the truth, she begins to lose herself to a man who is capable of destroying her world. So many clues are interspersed throughout the storyline premise.

Laurelin Paige pushes the reader into an unimaginable world; a place where our thoughts go but our heart does not belong; a story that will command your attention until the very end. But I want to add, that sometimes an author goes for ‘shock value’ in the storyline content, and I have to wonder if that is the purpose for some of the graphic imagery.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Share