Deliza Rafferty's Blog, page 8

Hound Dog Tour Day 12 - GIVEAWAY!!!

Today I have the honor of being hosted on  Book Bitches Blog  and Brooke has written a review that makes me SO. FREAKIN'. HAPPY!!!  
"Now I don’t want to give too much away, but there is no excuse for you to pass up this super steamy book by one very awesome writer."
AND SHE'S GIVING AWAY A COPY OF VOLUMES 2-4 OF THE CHRONICLES (Volume 1 is already/always free)!
So stop by and give some love to my girl, won't you?Thank you for hosting me today, Brooke! ♥
Hound Dog Excerpt/Review/Giveaway on

Hound Dog Tour Day 11

Happy Monday, Lil Lovers! Here we go, plugging along in week two! Today I'm chatting with the lovely and delightful Raebeth McGee-Buda (how awesome is her name???) at her blog,  The Writing World . Please stop by and check out the interview and have a look around. Thank you for hosting today, Raebeth! ♥



Also...scroll on down for this week's installment of Man Candy Monday and my first book review of Beverley Hollowed's Forever and Always!


(Got Hound Dog? You know you wanna read it! It's only 99 cents! )

Man Candy Monday!

Here we are again already!


This week we celebrate the beautiful Justin Barringer!(click to get a better look)








NUMMY NUMMY!!!

Review - "Forever and Always" by Beverley Hollowed

Well Lil Lovers, the time has come for me to jump into this book reviewing thing! I would like to preface my first one by saying that I hate to judge other peoples' art. It's uncomfortable, as a fellow author, knowing how much work, heart, emotion and time is poured into every word to then possibly have to tear it apart. 
Thank God I don't have to do that with my very first review, which happens to be Forever and Always by Beverley Hollowed! 



When 17 year old Melanie O’Leary agreed to spend the summer with her Aunt Maggie in Boston, she was less than thrilled. But after an argument with her father, the trip gives her just the space she needs. 

When she meets the handsome and very charming Sam Cooper, she loses her heart completely and utterly and then has it broken. Suddenly her life falls apart and is changed forever. Now she has to pick up the pieces and start again.

Seven years have passed and three weeks before her wedding to the dependable Simon Brennan, she comes face to face with the man who stole her heart and broke it. Now she must decide between her past and her future. But will a secret she is hiding find her having the choice made for her instead? Will she find the one who will love her.... Forever and Always?

___________________________________
This is the first full length romance novel I've read in over a decade. No lie. When I was in college I read romance novels by the truckload...then I got a computer and I stopped reading that much altogether. Travesty. So I'm glad to be back in the swing of things. That said, I am now reminded both why I love romance novels and why they make me absolutely cray cray! This book pretty much goes as follows:
Reader meets girl.
Oh the drama! The teen angst! The overprotective parents! The arguments! The misunderstandings! The world travel!
Boy meets girl.
The States! The burgeoning emotions! The excitement! The elation! The nerves! The trembling! The deflowering! The innocence lost! The promises! The lurve! The beach!
Boy loses girl.
The heartbreak! The sobbing! The world travel! The Emerald Isle! The major health crisis! The adult angst! The weight loss! The grief! The panick attacks! 
Boy tries to get girl back.
The love triangle! The nosy friends! The yummysweatymonkeylovin'! The self-hatred! The lies! The meddling loved ones! The drinking! The further weight loss! The dresses! The promises! The broken promises! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The misunderstandings! The flip-flopping! The last leg of world travel! The States!
Boy gets girl back.
Happily ever after. I think. Is there another shoe somewhere? Cuz my heart can't take anymore. Watch the sky! 
It's an absolute emotional roller coaster, my friends. A big ole sappy, gooey, angsty, heartbreaking emotional roller coaster.  If you love that sort of thing, THIS IS YOUR BOOK! Admittedly, I like a big dose of realism with my romance (i.e. - I don't believe for one second that *SPOILER ALERT* ANY man would be celibate for seven years while he pines away for his first love, Miss Beverley...boys just aren't wired that way...just sayin' ), but this book sucked me in and the author did it with the lovely relationship she set up at the front between Melanie, our 17 year old heroine (when we first meet her) and her father Alex, who is hopelessly, charmingly besotted with his daughter. 
Melanie in the first half of the book is a bit of a petulant brat. But she's a teenager, so of course she is. In the second half of the book, she is a 24 year old adult but severely broken, with more than one excellent reason. But she's managed to move on with her life and put it back together, albeit with not much more than Scotch tape at best. 
Sam Cooper, our hero, is of course uber-gorge and whipped from minute one. I kinda liked that, since everything on the market right now is all about men who treat women like shit and somehow get away with it (what the hell is wrong with us, ladies? Cheezandcrackers  ). He is also endlessly patient not just with teenage Melanie but with adult Melanie, long past the point where a good man actually should be. I had more than one "Moonstruck" moment while reading where I wanted to slap Melanie and scream "Snap out of it!" -- I can only imagine that if Sam was real he may have wanted to, also. But Mel's cootch must've had super powers! 
Two things saved Melanie for me:
1) Her dad finally calls her on her shit. Dear God, someone had to. (And then he meddles in her love life to a degree that is grossly inappropriate and absolutely aaaaaawwwww all at the same time, making me wish my dad would have cajones that size in regard to my happiness if ever I needed him to.) 
2) Beverley writes the blossoming love story between Melanie and Sam so sweetly and tenderly as well as Sam's conviction that there is no one else for him so unshakably that I couldn't help but root for them, no matter how star-crossed the pair was and how woe-is-me Melanie got (and again I feel compelled to mention that she does have good reason). Did I believe how desperately they loved each other? Abso-fuckin-lutely. And that's the most important thing to me.
Last note is that I was impressed with Beverley's through line with the story - many tiny little details seemed meticulously thought out, and no call back missed, which is no small feat when you have a seven year time jump in the middle of the book. I also offer kudos in how she wrote Sam and Melanie as a young couple and then how she wrote them seven years later...both were entirely believable at their given ages in both time frames of the story.
All in all, I really enjoyed Forever and Always and I highly recommend it to anyone who is all about the romance. The reason it gets a four out of five is because I know what she's got coming up the bend and I have a feeling I'm gonna need the wiggle room! 

Rating: 4 smooches (out of 5)       

And now, if you'll excuse me...I have to go call my daddy... 

Buy Forever and Always


Connect with Beverley on Facebook


Coming in April:

Hound Dog Blog Tour Day 10 - another DOUBLE FEATURE day!

Oh, daylight savings time, you evil, evil, thing! A little late getting the links up and running, but here you go!


I am very honored that the Hound Dog tour is the VERY FIRST blog tour for I Heart Books ! Kris gave me a wonderful review and spotlight there today as well as some serious plastering on their Facebook page:
Feature on I Heart Books Official Blog
I Heart Books Facebook Page

"Wow! To start I was warned it was 'dark and twisty' by the author when requesting a review. Dark and twisty always sounds like a good-time to me, and I was not let down! I would also add; explosive and intense."
Thank you, Kris! ♥


Also, I've been spotlighted on The Little Black Book Blog , where you will also find a little excerpt from the book:

Hound Dog Spotlight on Little Black Book Blog


Thank you for hosting me today, LBBB! ♥


Please stop by to check out these generous features and then be so kind as to take a moment to surf around their sites a bit and show them some love. Thank you for having me, ladies!
And don't forget to grab your copy of Hound Dog here!

AWESOME Day 9 of Hound Dog Blog Tour...

Well we have an extra special tour day here...TWO amazeballs reviews and an interview! 
First a review by the lovely and generous Kristi Foote Fortenberry at her super cute blog "Reading Is My Time Out"...if what she has to say about Hound Dog doesn't make you want to read it, I'm not sure what will! ↓
"Great job Deliza Rafferty at writing a book that can be read quickly, but contain the story elements of a great novel!" ( ← *le sigh*! Thank you, Kristi! ♥)
Read Kristi's Review
Reading Is My Time Out

Next is a review and interview at Smitten's Bookblog , whose book chat group is one of my favorites on Facebook, and who was supposed to post a few days ago but had horrible technical difficulties and was offline for about three days (booooooooo!). But she's back and put together a lovely feature for me! 
Read Smitten's Review
Read Smitten's Interview With Me 


Stop by and give my girls some love!  Thank you for hosting me today, ladies! ♥
Also, this weekend I will be posting my first book review of Beverley Hollowed's Forever and Always. Hope you'll stick with me!

HOUND DOG IS LIVE!!!

Today's tour stop is at Shandra's Shadow World. Beautiful Shandra came up with some brilliant interview questions for me and I enjoyed chatting with her a lot. Please stop by, won't you? Thank you for having me today, Shandra! ♥
Interview with Deliza Rafferty at Shandra's Shadow World

Also, her new erotic thriller Lethal Obsession is available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for those who like some good old-fashioned suspense along with their BDSM! Check it out.

Man Candy Monday and Day 4 of Hound Dog Blog Tour!

Welcome to the very first
Now...understanding that it's simply not possible to find a man more beautiful than my beloved Theo Theodoridis...I will still make a gallant effort at seeking out the lesser gods in the universe every week just for you, Lil Lovers! (may my darling forgive me...  )

That said...meet Triple A...Adrian Allen from Australia! A former carpenter-cum-model. Uh-huh. Yeah, daddy. Besides the obvious yum factor, I purposely chose him because he's out of his 20's. I like me a full grown man. Especially the ones who know how to work with their hands... 
(Click the collage to get a better look)






Pretty, huh? I even found a video of him doing a model slate (awkward)...but you get to hear his GLORIOUS accent for a whopping five seconds at least! (Seriously...Australian accents just do. it. for. me.) Check it out:
http://vimeo.com/32975455
So what do YOU think?






Also, today's Hound Dog tour stop is at the delightful Book Boyfriend Reviews, where there is an EXCERPT just waiting for your little eyes! Please go check it out and then surf around and give Sandie some love for all her hard work supporting indie authors. Thank you for hosting me today, Sandie! ♥ 
(It's my goal to get one of my guys' names on this banner one day!  )

Hound Dog Blog Tour, Day 3

Happy Third Day of Tour, Lil Lovers! Today's stop is at Indie Reviews and I'm pretty happy that I managed to impress Angella with my work since erotic romance isn't her thing! LOL. Thank you for hosting me today, Angella! Hope you'll all stop by and check out her brief review and interview with me. 

Indie Reviews: Where Indie Authors Come For Reviews


Also, THERE'S A GIVEAWAY!!! I have a trivia question about "Rock & Roll - Vol. 1 of the Savannah Rossi Chronicles" posted in the Facebook tour event right now. The winner gets Volumes 2-4 for free when Hound Dog goes live this Friday (Vol. 1 is already free...AND SHORT...so you can read it before you answer the question). Go check it out! → http://www.facebook.com/events/421952407889131/

Hound Dog Blog Tour, Day 2

Candy Coated Book Blog is hosting the Hound Dog Blog Tour today and there's a little excerpt from the book -- check it out! Thank you, Chick and Doll! ♥