No More Secrets (Blue Moon, #1)
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6%
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Jackson had skipped town the day before his high school graduation, headed for the West Coast and leaving a hole in the family
Ocean Wolf Haven
Should be “…left a hole…” to match the tense of the rest of the sentence.
10%
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Carter kissed her palm. “No more wine for you. It makes you sappy,” he teased. In defiance, Joey topped off Phoebe’s glass.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Isn’t Pheobe driving?
11%
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“However, in addition to the usual fashion-led content, we always include a bigger picture feature. Something about improving the world we live in.
26%
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Jax laid a hand on her shoulder.
Ocean Wolf Haven
He is surprisingly touchy-feely with her.
28%
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“Do you mind if we make one more stop? There’s one last thing on my shopping list.”
Ocean Wolf Haven
Who said this? I thought it was Summer, but I don’t know.
30%
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“Come on, baby, open up.”
Ocean Wolf Haven
What kind of voice did he use saying that? A baby- or puppy-speaking voice would seem very creepy. Yet, he doesn’t know her well enough to use a sexy voice or even his regular speaking voice. What I’m getting at is that he shouldn’t be calling her baby at all yet, until they’ve been naked together.
30%
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Summer who was still working in the kitchen.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Why is she writing there? She could write in privacy in her room at the desk.
31%
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The words Pierce Acres rounded under the apple. “That arrow?” He frowned and cocked his head. It looked familiar. “It’s based on the weather vane on top of the little barn.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Also a play on the name as the arrow has pierced the apple.
32%
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“Want to go grab a smoothie, Bruce?” Beverly offered. “That would be lovely,” he said, letting her lead the way.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Is this a romance book or a Hallmark movie? Was the author shooting for both? I’m fine with that! ;-) I am just curious about it.
33%
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First there was the model’s agent who wasn’t happy with the placement of an ad.
Ocean Wolf Haven
What does an agent have to do with placement in a magazine? Nothing, that’s what. He bets paid, the model gets paid, she or he gets another tear sheet for her book, and it’s on to the next.
34%
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“I’m pretty sure it’s from a beach with a Cosmo in your hand.”
Ocean Wolf Haven
Sipping drinks served in a martini glass aren’t a good idea ON the beach. Beverages that can be sucked through straws with fruit that partially covers the mouth of the glass keep the sand out best. Hahahaha! :-)
34%
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She had never actually seen fawns in real life,
Ocean Wolf Haven
Damn, poor girl! She must have never gone to camp or petting zoos as a child. That’s sad. >:-(
34%
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Crickets and fireflies sang and danced in the dusky light.
Ocean Wolf Haven
I probably would have gone with “Crickets sang and fireflies danced…”
37%
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Rainbow Berkowicz popped in to lend a hand with his bill paying for the month
Ocean Wolf Haven
What bill? His hospital bill? A produce bill? A bill from her boot store?
37%
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ying-yang painted
Ocean Wolf Haven
Yin-yang. No “g” on Yin. From Google AI: While "Ying Yang" is a common misspelling, it's not the accurate way to refer to the concept in Chinese philosophy. Yin and Yang represent complementary, interconnected forces that exist in all aspects of the universe
37%
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Summer wandered further across the lawn to the edge of the shadows where grass
Ocean Wolf Haven
“Farther” is in regard to distance in real space. Example: She walked farther down the lawn. “Further” is in regard to metaphorical or internal progression. Example: She felt her heart move further along in its healing from loss.
39%
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“What was it like? The PTSD.” He looked out into the darkness. “Like everything was a threat. Like there was no hope or happiness. Just a constant state of alert. And I was angry. It took a long time to feel anything but anger or fear. But through that, I learned that we’re stronger together.”
40%
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He tugged her underwear to the side
Ocean Wolf Haven
This author has written this particular “move” into each of her books I’ve read. I have always found it uncomfortable when a guy does this. Just take the panties off! In fact, that’s what I have always said.
40%
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and slid two fingers into her tight center.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Did he wash up somewhere after farming the neighbor’s property? Ewww!
40%
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His shaft was nestled between her legs, those wet folds teasing him with dark promise. He groaned as every step stroked him closer to orgasm.
Ocean Wolf Haven
I’m confused. Did they both become completely naked from the waist down?
40%
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“Baby, are you ready?”
Ocean Wolf Haven
No condom? Yikes, that’s blindly brave!
41%
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“Carter, we forgot a condom. I’m not on birth control.”
Ocean Wolf Haven
Uh huh, I was right to question it.
41%
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“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
Ocean Wolf Haven
Men who ask this seem to assume too much. They assume their dick is so big or their “skill” at pumping away is so grand that they might have hurt the woman.
41%
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Wounded didn’t have to mean broken.
50%
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“You take baths outside?” Summer asked incredulously.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Not much different than a hot tub but no chlorine, so it’s better.
62%
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She held out a slim, cool hand, and Carter thought it wise to kiss this one.
Ocean Wolf Haven
So did he kiss her hand? Just because he “thought it wise to…” doesn’t mean he did it. I’m curious if his lips touched her fingers at all. (Barf!)
65%
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Her gaze darted to the corner where the security camera blinked. “I think I know a place,” she whispered. They wound their way through the main gallery and down one hallway
Ocean Wolf Haven
Why don’t they just leave so that her career isn’t ruined when the rival-bitch grabs images off the security cameras or snaps secret pictures? The event is over. So back to her apartment!
69%
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She took him to a Yankees game.
Ocean Wolf Haven
He’s surprised in a few paragraphs that she does this, and it’s a sweet moment. Why did the author lessen its sweet surprise for the reader by placing this sentence here?
73%
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It was too soon in a summer fling to start talking futures.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Really? Is she honestly telling herself “summer fling”? Even though she can’t see how they’ll make it work does not mean they won’t be able to become much more. Or, is that what she calls all of her romances because her name is Summer? Which, by the way seems quite “hippieish” for such a serious journalist to name his daughter.
73%
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The whole market had the festive feel of a summer picnic.
Ocean Wolf Haven
The author is giving the reader the impression that this doesn’t happen every weekend. Summer has been there before on weekends, why is the market only now being described, and why is it seeming like it’s all new to her? Is it?
74%
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Beckett the mayor.
Ocean Wolf Haven
And attorney. I think not mentioning his college educated profession is a bit rude.
74%
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she would deliver to a church that fed the hungry and down-on-their-luck.
Ocean Wolf Haven
I don’t think we ever got a population count on the town. How does a small farming community have “hungry and down-on-their-luck” residents? If the population is large enough, I understand, but if it’s a tiny town, I am confused as to why a church would need a food bank.
75%
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“I’m positive.” She crushed her mouth to his.
Ocean Wolf Haven
When she pees on a stick soon, that will be positive, too.
75%
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She did as he asked
Ocean Wolf Haven
As he said, not as he asked. There’s a hot and sexy difference between the two. ;-)
75%
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He entered her with one powerful surge that tore a cry from her throat.
Ocean Wolf Haven
He entered her and douched pond water up her hoo-ha against her cervix where a bacterial colony will feed a fungus that grows into Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and render her sterile. Good times now and ahead.
76%
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The five chaperones looked woefully unprepared for the chaos that a dozen tie-dye clad toddlers would wreak. Four of them were crying. Two were rolling around in the gravel yelling “Hulk smash!”
Ocean Wolf Haven
That adds up to six, not five (hahaha)!
76%
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“I wish you had herding dogs,” Tracey called to Carter as she chased a little boy with glasses and a fishing hat back into the fold.
Ocean Wolf Haven
They’ve got rope, don’t they? It’s a farm; tie the little suckers together on a lead line and jerk them i to submission.
76%
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We also used to do hay rides, but two years ago Johnny ‘Future Juvenile Delinquent’ Delroy climbed up on the tractor and put it in gear. I still have nightmares about it,” he shivered.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Were there keys in the tractor? With children on the grounds?
77%
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“I’m going to go see Joey,” she said, heart pounding. She met Beckett in the kitchen.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Where’s Nikolai? Did he go back to the city after one day of shooting?
83%
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“No one gets that guarantee,” Nikolai said it quietly. “Not even people who don’t have cancer. People die every day. People lose loved ones every damn day. And you think by not being someone’s other half, you can protect them from that? Bullshit.”
86%
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A collection of shoes that makes other women sigh with envy… A wardrobe by all the right designers… The right circle of interesting friends… My name on insightful articles perfectly crafted to tell you the stories that deserve your attention… I sit here in my apartment with its charming bay window that overlooks a neighborhood grocery store and barbershop in my Manhattan-approved this-season’s-hottest outfit with my barely worn Manolo Blahniks sitting on the floor next to me. My circle of “friends” consists of advertisers, designers,
Ocean Wolf Haven
This part should be the last paragraph before concluding with what her future holds. This is written all wrong. I don’t understand why the author did it this way. If I was Carter, I would have stopped reading within about three sentences and never given the rest of the blog a chance to sway his opinion of her.
87%
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Many of you have probably seen the “Hot for Farmer” piece under my byline in a magazine that, from now on, shall remain nameless.
Ocean Wolf Haven
She should have started the blog with the information that she walked away from it all and then described what the “all” she walked away from is.
87%
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where I bought my last pair of shoes? Who cares that I spend every minute of every day trying to write things that will make you buy something? A magazine, a beauty product, a fabulous winter parka. Does it matter that the shoes hurt my feet? Or that I haven’t spent a Saturday night doing what I wanted to do since college? It’s fine. Right? I have everything I want.
Ocean Wolf Haven
This is all blather. She should prove herself a real writer and worthy of Carter by getting to the point immediately.
89%
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We haven’t even talked about kids. How do you know I want them?”
Ocean Wolf Haven
He just said, before she left the farm, that their kids would never be like the ones from the school who toured the farm.
92%
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John Pierce, Carter’s father, had been a man among men. He’d raised his sons on the tenants of integrity, respect, and service. And when he’d died, their community grieved with them.
Ocean Wolf Haven
We already know all of this. Why is the author recapping in an epilogue? Plus, they should be discussing her new husband Franklin.
93%
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He knew his mother and her husband had an active sex life. The first time he met the man, he’d been crawling out of Phoebe’s bedroom window onto the roof of the front porch.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Again, something we already know. An epilogue is not a recap or flashback to what has been. That’s a dust cover blurb, not a wrap up of what years ahead have become.
95%
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“So, maybe we have some time?” Summer asked, slipping her hand back into Carter’s jeans. She wrapped her fingers around him, gripping his thickness. “What goat?” Carter breathed.
Ocean Wolf Haven
Instead of another hot and steamy moment with them, I’d have preferred an EPILOGUE that truly wrapped up unanswered questions or at least lead into the next book better. For one: What happened to “Indulgence “ magazine when the lack of journalistic integrity got out? Did advertisers or employees bail? Did the bitch Kira get any type of a kick in the ass from the universe? Did the good friend Nikolai shoot pictures for Summer’s online magazine at all?