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New Release Review! DECADENT DESIRES by Tawny Weber (Karma Cafe #4)

We are so excited to be sharing the release of DECADENT DESIRES by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Tawny Weber. Fans of paranormal romance won’t want to miss this sexy new novella. Be sure to grab your copy today!

About DECADENT DESIRES:

Bedtime Bliss is on the menu when a guy used to fighting dragons has to awaken a beauty of her own power, and the magic of sensual delights before the Valentine’s Ball.

But can she accept the repercussions of magic and her duty to family? Or would it be easier to return to the sweet bliss of sleepy obliviousness where life is simple, love is a myth and magic is reserved for fairy tales?

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Excerpt:

Well, this definitely wasn’t starting out the way Rose had planned.

Instead of a boringly anonymous hotel room or even her office, she’d spend the next two weeks working in a stranger’s apartment over a café that challenged her on levels she didn’t quite understand.

Instead of greeting an old friend, the man who’d help her with the biggest challenge of her career, she’d been tossed into a sea of lust.

And now, rather than an easy nice-to-meet you introduction to Sam’s friends, she’d been kicked in the gut with a cacophony of emotions that she couldn’t understand. Oh, she could identify them. Fear, longing, hope, confusion. But she didn’t understand the actual cause, and she definitely didn’t understand what to do about them.

Wait, she supposed.

Just wait until they made sense.

But even as she thought that, Rose bumped into Sam.

“Sorry,” she gasped. “I didn’t realize you’d stopped.”

He took her hand as if to keep her from falling back down the stairs and laughed.

That laugh filled her with something. Something so powerful and energizing and confusing that she could only blink.

Then he pulled her up a step so that she was on the landing next to him. He squeezed her hand, and the feel of his fingers wrapped tight around hers sent tingles through her. The sort of tingles that made her think naked thoughts. Naked, hot bodies tangled together thoughts.

“Welcome to your new home away from home,” Anja said, gesturing to the open door on the right of the landing.

And giving Rose a clear view of why Sam had stopped.

Shock had a way of doing that to a person.

It was a good sized apartment. Living room, a dining nook separated from a cozy kitchen by a jut of countertop. The view outside the window was as good as one could ask in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate framed by sheer curtains. The problem was, even sheer, day-glow orange curtains were guaranteed to make you blink twice.

As if in a trance, Rose stepped around Sam, past Anja’s welcoming arm and into the living area. Eye-watering or not, it was a welcoming space. Welcoming, and something else.

Wondering how many ways she could feel off balance, Rose tried to breathe calmly, even though the air felt as if it were filled with a shimmer of glitter. If she squinted, she could almost make out the color of the shimmers.

Crazy, she realized, shaking her head to dismiss the idea. Her mother had always called her over imaginative, bemoaning her fascination with silly things like magic and fairy tales and energy work. By the time Rose was ten, she’d learned to put away all of that nonsense and to focus her imagination on something useful.

So why was this room bringing that all back again?

It had to be that old lady’s comment about her grandparents, she realized. Her shoulders relaxed, the tension shifting as she made the connection. And now that she knew, she could ignore the silly ideas of energy and magic in the air and focus on reality.

With that in mind and her chin high, she turned to give Anja a warm smile.

“It’s a lovely room.”

“If you say so,” the brunette laughed. “I’ve always thought of it as a bit of kaleidoscope myself.”

“And where better to create a game of fun and adventure than a kaleidoscope.” When Rose glanced at Sam, her lips twitched a little at his stunned expression. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready for working in a kaleidoscope?

Before she could ask, he seemed to shake it off and turned to thank Anja. While he made arrangements with her for meals and talked about getting together to catch up and visit later, Rose wandered the room.

It was unique, to say the least. Like something you’d have seen in a teenager’s room in the seventies, but with an extra kick of woo woo. Images of tarot cards woven into a tapestry on the wall, candles and crystals everywhere, incense burners and hanging glass in the shape of moons all added to the woo.

But they still didn’t explain the feeling in the air. Rose took a second to breathe it in. She’d never felt anything like it, yet it was a familiar memory.

Before she could reach back and find it, though, Anja called out her goodbyes. Manners awoke, Rose hurried back to the door to do her social duties.

Then, suddenly, it was just her and Sam.

Alone.

In this funky apartment.

She stared at Sam, noting the look in his dark eyes, the way his smile stretched those tempting lips. He had the most amazing cheekbones. On a sigh, her gaze drifted to his shoulders, down those biceps and over his chest. Even more amazing than his cheekbones was his body.

She wanted that body.

Rose cringed, wondering what had got into her. She never looked at men like this. She never thought about—much less obsessed over—sex ever before in her life.

Maybe it was reaction to the room? She’d never been around this much faux fur and velour before, either. Could it be some weird sort of allergic reaction?

Review:

Decadent Desires is a cute, clever retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story. Instead of literally being asleep, Rose McBriar (get it?)’s magic abilities have been suppressed. Her evil boss Millicent (visually close to Maleficent, but am I the only one who tends to see all Millicents as kindly little old ladies?) wants to keep Rose under her thumb, reaping the rewards of Rose’s mad game development skills all for her own benefit.

This was my first read in the Karma Cafe series. On the whole it worked just fine as a standalone–each story has its own hero, heroine, and plot–though I did feel a bit out of the loop on the significance of the apartment above the cafe at first (no worries, Sam and Rose are too–it does become revealed in time, mostly). It was fun to look for the Sleeping Beauty parallels, and Sam and Rose are easy to root for. There is more than a touch of instalove, though, and a longer format probably might have given us more Sam-and-Rose-together-time than this novella affords. Still, it was a fun way to spend an evening, and I’ll definitely pick up other books in the series in the future.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars / B-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

 

About TAWNY WEBER:

New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling author of more than forty-five books, Tawny Weber writes sassy, emotional romances featuring hot alpha heroes. Stories with a dash of humor and a whole lot of sexy attitude! A fan of Johnny Depp, cupcakes, and her very own hero husband, Tawny enjoys papercrafting, gardening, spending time with her family and dogs.

Fans are invited to check out Tawny’s books at her website, www.tawnyweber.com. For extra fun, join her Red Hot Readers Club for goodies like free reads, complete first chapters, recipes, insider story info and much more.

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