Reviews and Promo: Rumor Has It and Picture Perfect: Elisabeth Grace
Picture Perfect (Limelight#2)Add to Goodreads
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Being the daughter of a big-city mayor, twenty-one year old Skye Summers has giant shoes to fill in her first real job out of college. With the public spotlight on her family, and her dad¹s expectations running high, she jumps at the chance to work side-by-side on an important project with her sexy new boss.
Playboy entrepreneur Landon Steele has built a successful entertainment PR firm and broken more than a few hearts along the way. He¹s counting on his enthusiastic new assistant to help him expand his business into LAŠ until he discovers she¹s a pampered rich girl who¹s in the public spotlight as much as his famous clients. Still, he agrees to give her a chance, and soon the two are heating up the bedroom as well as the boardroom.
But when Skye¹s ex-boyfriend threatens to reveal a dangerous secret from her past, her job, relationship with Landon, and her father¹s career are suddenly all on the line. Will she be forced to leave Landon? Or will she pursue her heart, regardless of the cost?
*****THIS BOOK CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE*****
Skye's life has always been about appearances. As the daughter of the Mayor, she always had to keep up that perky, poised, put together facade. After a difficult break up, she found herself in a situation with a stranger that was not her "normal behavior'. Little did she know, they would cross paths again.Landon Steele is the charming, sexy, successful owner of his own PR firm. And the last thing he expected was to see that his new assistant looks very familiar. He seems to be the epitome of success and control, but he also has his demons under the surface that affect him.
So begins a dance of them circling each other at work: denial, lust, longing, and regret. He brings out her hidden wild side. She makes him lose control. For propriety's sake nothing should ever happen between them. But sexual tension causes a pull that renders them powerless to resist.
Landon...sigh...He is magnetic, flirty, bossy, and protective. But he has a vulnerable, damaged side too. Trust is something that does not come easy to him and he is uncompromising about honesty. But despite the in control facade he tries to present he feels emotions: conflict, confusion, sad, anger, jealousy, need, and joy. But he has real fears about commitment and relationships.
I didn't know what it was about this girl, but she got under my skin as easily as a scalpel would.
Skye is smart, polished, hard working, and talented. But she also has sass and a good heart. I could not help but like her. She always wants to do the right thing for those around her, but it does not always work out in her favor.
Something about this guy made me throw all reason away and urged me to do naughty things. My inner sex kitten had come out to play.
I loved them together and enjoyed their banter, flirting, romance and chemistry. But at times wanted to scream at their communication issues and the outside influences threatening their chance at happiness. There were some twists and surprises that I did not see coming and kept it interesting.
In a world where perception is everything, secrets and vindictive people can ruin things in an instant. Landon and Skye will both be forced to make choices that will impact their lives and others. Once drama is swirling around them from various sources, can they keep it together or will they fledgling feelings become a casualty?
This was a sweet, fast paced, romantic read that I devoured in one sitting. The characters were likable and complex enough to be interesting. It was told in both points of view so we got to see their confusion, fears, and longing even before they admitted it. There were some moments that just made me sigh and swoon. The characters Ellie and Mason from Rumor Has It made a few appearances as did their other friend Katie. And we met Calder, a Hollywood bad boy who will be the subject of the next book Collateral Damage. I look forward to more books in this series and from Elisabeth Grace.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
We met Skye in Rumor Has It, as Ellie’s best friend, but we didn’t see much of her personal life, except that Ellie didn’t like her boyfriend. This started out looking like a simple office romance (with a meeting prior to Skye and her mystery man knowing they would be working so closely together). But as the story developed, it became less simple, with determined exes, secret liaisons, and threatened scandal.
As the mayor’s daughter, she had been brought up knowing appearances could help or hurt her father’s career, and she has spent her life trying to be perfect for him.
Landon owns and runs a successful PR firm and is working to open a second office in LA. He is focused and driven to make his business stronger and has hired a new assistant to help with the expansion.
The limelight concept that was so front and center in Rumor Has It felt more subtle this time around. It was more about the threat of secrets coming out and appearances rather than a direct media frenzy like Mason and Ellie faced. Because Skye was so used to being in the public eye, she tended to keep things low-key and private anyway, but that fear of discovery was always at the back of her mind. So while the idea of being in the public eye ties these two stories together, there is not a carbon copy feeling to these two plots.
Reading both this and Rumor Has It back to back, I could tell the development that happened between the author’s debut novel and her second. While they were both enjoyable, I could tell that there was growth between the novels and while they were both well written, Picture Perfect caught and held my imagination faster and deeper than the first book.
Picture Perfect has a great mix of chemistry and tension from the very beginning. From their first meeting through the epilogue I was captured. I loved the escape it provided while I was immersed in the reading.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
All publicity is good publicity, right? Unless you’re recent college grad Ellie Wagner and an embarrassing video of you and your boyfriend goes viral. Every man in your life abandons you, but who knew a one-minute clip of your latest doomed relationship would brand you a slut, prevent you from getting your perfect job, and force you to keep doing the one thing you swore you’d never do again…live with your mother.
But staying with mom and her latest boy-toy (is this husband number four or five?) until your life turns around might not be all bad. Especially when you fall – literally – at the feet of a sexy, green-eyed stranger who offers you freedom and a life of luxury on a gold-rimmed platter.
There’s only one little problem – the man of your dreams is none other than Mason Nash, the latest hip-hop star busting up the music charts. Fame and fortune are his calling cards and he’s vying to steal the show on a new reality TV series that will catapult him into mainstream stardom. Hello spotlight.
The man behind the famous persona is perfect for Ellie in every way, but can she overcome the ugly pitfalls that come with Mason's celebrity status? Or will she be forced to choose between the man she loves and the independent life she longs for? After all, fame and fortune aren’t always what they seem and not all publicity is good publicity…
Ellie is living with the stigma from an embarrassing moment caught on video and gone viral online. Knowing her chances of finding a good job have been hurt by the attention the video has garnered, she does everything she can do avoid drawing extra attention to herself.
Mason is a hip hop star taking time off to relax, collect himself, and reflection the direction of his career before going on tour once again.
When they meet in Ellie’s Virginia hometown, sparks fly and the chemistry ignites. Ellie, a fan of rock, has no idea who the handsome man renting from her boss is, and Mason quickly catches on to Ellie’s dislike of celebrity and attention. He also realizes that because she doesn’t know who he is, he can get to know her without his celebrity getting in the way. When she discovers who he is, she must decide if the attention that will come from dating a celebrity is worth the man. And it doesn’t take long for the attention to start.
From the beginning the interactions between these two was sweet. Their meeting had me laughing as I pictured it, and the grins didn’t stop there. Mason, for all his tats and hip-hop image, routinely showed a side of himself that was only shown in private. His relationship with his siblings, and the more stressed one with his mom, gave Ellie a completely different picture than she could even learn from the media.
Ellie’s friends, Skye and Katie, were both great supports for her and I particularly loved the comedic moments that often occurred when Katie was part of the conversation. The lack of filter on that girl is priceless.
This was a sweet, comfortable read, with the perfect amount of tension, conflict and stress to balance the sweetness.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Upcoming
Now trending
Hollywood It Girl, Francesca Leon, has just landed the biggest role of her career…one that could clinch an Oscar nomination and open doors. If she’s going to move her career to the next level and work with top directors, she has to nail this part — and keep her sexy, but unreliable leading man from screwing everything up.
Team Calder
Bad boy Calder Fox is the son of Hollywood royalty and fresh out of rehab after his best friend’s death sent him on a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol. While his fans still love him and the paparazzi stalk him, he’s never taken life, or anything about his career, seriously. He may be charming and drop-dead gorgeous, but if he doesn’t stay sober, he could ruin Frankie’s future and expose her long-hidden family secret to the voracious media.
Behind the scenes
During filming, Calder breaks through Frankie’s defenses and their on-set romance soon develops into something hotter, deeper, and much more real. But when Calder is forced to choose between salvaging his last chance at a movie career or revealing Frankie’s secret to the world, Frankie fears her days in Hollywood are numbered.
I’m Elisabeth Grace, or El if you prefer, and I write New Adult Contemporary Romance.
I’d been an avid reader my entire life, but when I discovered romance novels during my first pregnancy I was hooked! Not sure if it was the hormones or the lack of a life that was headed my way once my daughter was born, but since then I’ve been devouring several romance books a week. I love nothing more than reading about some serious alpha males and a happily ever after.
Things you should know about me…I’m a fan of lists, so here’s mine:
- I live outside Toronto, Canada…eh. (Yes, it’s true. We Canadians say ‘eh’ A LOT.)
- I’m a wife and mommy to two small children which I refer to as Little Miss and Mr. Magoo.
- I own one cat spawned by the devil. Seriously. He’s as cute as they come but you’ve never met a meaner feline. In retrospect we should have named him, Lucifer. I have the scars to prove it.
- I believe there’s no such thing as too much chocolate. Or popcorn. Or bread. Or potatoes. Yes, you guessed it…I’m a sugar and carb addict.
- I hate running. Always have, always will. Unless David Gandy’s in the vicinity you won’t find me doing it. Ever. Not sure who David Gandy is and think you might want to become a Gandy Girl like me? Google him. You can thank me later.
- I’m a LOVER of all music. The 1200+ songs on my IPod can attest to the variety of my musical tastes. Hubby and I try to travel to a different music festival every year and are regular concert goers.
- My name is Elisabeth and I like reality TV. There I admitted it and that’s the first step, right? Yes, I’m a writer and I see the need for scripted shows, but sometimes there’s just something so entertaining about watching one Real Housewife lose it on another one. I could listen to Cochran’s diatribe on his fellow castaways for hours.
- Of the four of us that make up my family, three of us are Leo’s. Let’s say it together…DRAMA!
- I may be the world’s worst cook. My poor children. Unless Daddy’s cooking they know not to expect much.
- I write every night after my kids are in bed until the wee hours of the morning. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that I have always been an early-bird-catches-the-worm kind-of girl, so 5:00am comes early. Sleep is over-rated, I say.
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