Thank you to Jenny at Neverlands Blog Tour for this wonderful opportunity to host Claire Ayres and to the author for a copy in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.
Blurb:
Cellist, Luka, has moved to Bristol to start a new job and recover from the betrayal of finding his best friend and his girlfriend in bed together. He doesn’t plan on the emotional thunderstorm that meeting his next-door neighbour Jess causes.
Jess had everything, a man she loved, friends she adored and then the world crashed around her. Depression came from nowhere and slowly started ripping her life away. Now she lives a lonely, sad life but the music which she keeps hearing next door is waking her up and she doesn’t know why.
Join Luka and Jess as they discover life after heartache, how to forgive and how to live and love again.
*Entrapped is an 18+ Contemporary Romance with several graphic sex scenes*
Goodreads:Goodreads: Entrapped
Amazon: Amazon UK
My review:
Well this was a surprise. I agreed to join Netherlands Blog Tour for Entrapped and thought it was a contemporary romance, which it is, but I didn’t realise that it was an 18+ novel with several graphic sex scenes.
What I was looking for in this novel was plot, storyline, interesting characters as well as sizzling sexual chemistry and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.
So if you like your contemporary romance on the sexy, graphic side THIS IS FOR YOU.
This novel wasn’t smutty, or lewd. It was utterly, deliciously sensuous and the message conveyed was very much about our human desire for physical, as well as companionable love.
My other observation is I absolutely LOVED the musical aspect to it. It was so enticing – the cello – and the man! No wonder she was enthralled. Who could resist such a sexy combination?
I couldn’t help but ogle the cover art. Isn’t that cover wonderful?
The story follows Jess’s initial reluctance to get involved with another guy – Luka – after her previous boyfriend finishes with her because of her depression. Luka and Jess are insanely attracted to each other and readers will be glad to know that they can’t resist each other for long!
I liked how Claire Ayres touched on depression and how debilitating this can be. Entrapped didn’t dwell on this topic too much – I reckon that would have dragged the narrative down and would have made the tone of the novel too serious. So, Claire Ayres handled this well.
This is not a novel to read at bedtime if you want to fall sleep!
Overall, it was a sizzling debut read that I devoured very quickly. It certainly wasn’t boring!
Recommended for those who like their contemporary romance on the 18+ with graphic sex scenes, side.
My rating: 4 stars.
Musical Hope – The Inspiration
Ask most authors what made them want to write and they will say they always wanted to write. For me that’s not true, I’ve always enjoyed writing and have always been good at it, but my creative passion originally lay elsewhere. I took inspiration from that dream when planning my musical hope series.
As a teenager I was determined to become a professional musician, I was being classically trained in several instruments starting with the cello which features in book one and two of this series, moving onto the clarinet which will feature in book three and finally I played the saxophone. In addition I wrote music and I sang. My dream was to attend the Royal College of Music and train as a musician, ultimately, I wanted to be a composer. Still writing just a different type of writing.
My love affair with music came to an unfortunate end the combination of diagnosed bipolar and a pushy teacher colliding with my GCSE’s left me feeling the most anxious I have ever felt at the prospect of picking up an instrument or a pen to write music. To this day I have not played another piece of music or ever written anything else.
But I’ve never stopped loving music, I absorb music like a sponge and have spent the majority of my life around music, albeit heavy metal. Working as a freelance music journalist for many years and writing about the music I love. I also attend classical concerts regularly, unable to let go of the music which had my heart from the beginning and that is where we pick up my story about this book series because it was at such a concert one evening that it all came together.
I had gone to see the London Philharmonic play The Planets in full (very good I recommend it) and while I was sat there absorbed in the music and watching the musicians I became caught up wondering what their personal lives are like and what my life would have been like if I had succeeded in achieving my dream. Just like that Musicians Hope was born and Luka my first character in Entrapped started to take shape, a cellist who moves from London to Bristol to escape a bad break up we see him juggle his life in the orchestra and as a passionate musician, with his personal life which is far from simple.
In each book we will spend time with a different musician from the Bristol Symphony Orchestra, and while each story is standalone, they will interweave so that you can see the world growing, characters you know and love coming and going from later books and development of characters you’ve met in earlier books into main characters in the later books.
I may not have become the musician I planned but I am passionate about writing and to put my love of music into fiction in this way has been one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever done. I have so much more planned for the musicians in this orchestra and I can’t wait to continue sharing their story with you.
About Claire Ayres:
Claire lives in Bristol, UK and has taken her inspiration from the people and the places she has seen over the years. She always has a book close at hand and devours Fantasy and Romance like some devour chocolate! Claire loves a happily ever after followed by lots of bloody sword-fighting and dangerous dragons! But when writing her debut novel Entrapped drew on her childhood ambition to be a musician and one of the instruments she played and still loves as a centre-point.
Claire is also a passionate mental health advocate who lives with bipolar disorder and has done regular radio interviews and even some TV. She is also a huge heavy metal fan and can regularly be found banging her head at a concert or festival.
Website: https://brizzlelassbooks.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BrizzleLass
Giveaway
International
1st Prize: Signed copy of Entrapped and a copy of 7th Symphony by Apocalyptica
2nd Prize: eCopy of Entrapped
WordPress users: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/bf633057182/?
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Buying Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Entrapped-Musicians-Hope-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07DD6ZJHR/
Have you read Entrapped or intend to grab a copy? I’d recommend that you do!
Feel free to comment below.
Bye for now,
The Curse of Time Book One Bloodstone:
Buy Paperback Book link: http://mybook.to/TheCurseofTime
Unique Selling Point: Unique, Imaginative, ‘Charming, enchanting and richly layered this is purely delightful.’
“This delightful book will appeal to teens and young adults who love stories filled with magical crystals, dark family curses, and mysteries waiting to be solved around every corner. Each chapter leads you on a journey of discovery where Amelina earns the right to use three wizard stones to reset the balance of time and finally break the curse that holds her family hostage. A captivating tale!” – Colleen M. Chesebro (Editor)
My Social Media:
Authors Website: https://mjmallon.com
Collaborative blog: https://sistersofthefey.wordpress.com
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time
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Cover: The Curse of Time
M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 