Toot's Book Reviews: Series Spotlight, Teasers & Excerpt : Sensations Collection by L.B. Dunbar

Book Blurb & Info

Fragrance Free (Sensations Collection #3)
by L.B. Dunbar

Change your destiny.

As the third child in the Carter family, I always felt a little on the outside of the Carter charm. I worked hard and played harder, but I was getting tired of the same old scene. I was more than Jess Carter’s little sister, I wanted to be me. Pam Carter.

It was time for a change and I wanted to be set free.

I knew it needed to happen. After years of one night stands and too brief sexual encounters, an accident brought Fate to me. To resist his charm was my penance for years of misbehavior. The temptation to give in to my desire haunted me for almost two years, until an uncontrollable situation started the twisted path to test my resolve further.

What would it take to claim my independence and be a new, improved woman?

I worked for Jacob Vincent, horror novelist extraordinaire, as his personal assistant, but I was adamant that the relationship remain professional. Jacob had dark demons and I couldn’t bring him into the light…or could I? Life was springing forth for me; changes were coming. I knew it was time to be set free from who I had been and who I was to start fresh with who I wanted to be. I just didn’t know where to start to change my destiny.

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Return to Elk Rapids for the third sensation in the Sensations Collection, Fragrance Free. A standalone contemporary New Adult romance, this novel continues the stories of the Carter and Scott families. Read Sound Advice (Sensations Collection 1) to meet Jess Carter and Emily Post and find out how it all began over some good advice and a broken radio, or Taste Test (Sensations Collection 2) to meet Ethan Scott and Ella Vincentia where the challenge is delicious in more ways than one.

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Book Excerpt

I sensed light behind my eyelids and I cautiously opened them to see Jacob Vincent sitting next to me. I was vaguely aware that I was on my side and he was rather close considering I should have been on the couch. It occurred to me slowly that I was not on the hard leather couch, but rather a soft, comfortable area that had more space than a couch. I was in a bed. Jacob’s bed.

I tried to push myself up, but my arms were shaking and my elbow gave way. I face planted into the soft pillow, inhaling deeply the fresh scent of newly washed sheets. My head was pounding and I wasn’t sure I could lift it again.

Please tell me, I’m dreaming, I told myself.

“That’s some hangover you’re nursing there,” a low, raspy voice said next to me.

Oh God, kill me now. Please, I moaned.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not hung-over,” I growled unintentionally.

“I know. I’m just teasing.”

I collapsed back onto my side. My eyes opened wide, but the bright light hurting my head forced me to close them again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. My voice was unrecognizable to me.

“Well, this is my house. And I do still own it. Occasionally live here,” the voice teased.

I knew he was smiling.

“I mean, what are you doing here now? You weren’t due until tomorrow.”

“I came back early. Although, technically, it is tomorrow.”

I tried to sit up again. What? I screamed inwardly. I had to get to Persephone’s Garden today.

“Relax. I think you’re all set today. You aren’t going anywhere.”

I didn’t question him further on this subject.

“Why am I in your bed? How did I get here?”

Please don’t tell me I walked up here in my dazed frame of mind, I pleaded.

“I might be a bit offended at the way you phrased that question or the tone you used, but considering how sick you are, I’ll let it go. I carried you up here and…”

“What?” I moaned. Oh God, really, I’m not joking, kill me. Now.

I thought briefly of my body. I was short at only five-two, but curvy. I had large breasts by anyone’s standards for a smaller woman and rounded hips. I was solid from working out, but I was not thin by most standards, at least not my own. While my sister, Tricia, who was three years younger, was tall and lean, I considered myself short and stocky. As a matter of fact, when it was a popular fashion to label jeans long and lean, I would always demand the short and stocky selection. Most sales people didn’t appreciate my humor. Additionally, I had been the one Carter cursed with my mother’s genes. Tom, Jess and Tricia were all tall and lanky while I took after our mother who was more full figured at her mature age. I groaned again to think that Jacob picked me up.

“Here. I think you need to take these.” He handed me two tablets and a glass of water that he grabbed off the nightstand next to his side of the bed. I sat up slightly and took the pills, swallowing the cool water as he held the glass to my lips. I closed my eyes as I drank. I couldn’t look at him.

“Thank you,” I purred again, as I shakily balanced on my arms.

“Lie down.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re sick. And your mom says you need rest.”

“You called my mother?” I was further mortified.

Teaser

Series Info

Sound Advice (Sensations Collection #1)
by L.B. Dunbar

“Nana’s Rules to Live By”

Gentlemen should always open the door for a lady.

I was busy and I didn’t have time for a vacation, let alone a weekend away. When a frantic phone call from an old neighbor brought me to my grandmother’s summer home, I wasn’t prepared for an extended stay. And I especially wasn’t prepared for the man holding the door open to the radio repair shop who made a lasting first impression.

In attempts at a relationship, a gentleman should always make the first move.

Calling Jess Carter’s clenched jaw and denim-colored eyes part of his standoffish manner was an understatement. His brooding exterior bordered on being downright rude. From the moment I bumped into him, quite literally, our lives began to intertwine in a way that made me question what I wanted.

Children should be seen and not heard.

Jess had secrets and I was determined to get to the bottom of them. Even he didn’t know the solutions to all his problems, I wanted to help. In doing so, I might have drawn too close to the truth, forcing Jess to risk something he wasn’t sure he could chance again. I had decisions to make for myself and it’s hard to know whose advice to take when so many questions remain unanswered.

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Series Info

Taste Test (Sensations Collection #2)
by L.B. Dunbar

In a modern twist of fairy tales,
what if the beast is a woman instead of a man?

Ethan Scott
I was about to find out when a mysterious job led to the secluded home of a horror novelist. I’d lost everything: my scholarship, my education, and my way. In denial of my family inheritance, I took the unusual employment as a chance out of a hole, but I found myself buried in the unknown trauma of another situation much deeper.

Ella Vincentia
I had changed my name and my address to keep myself hidden, but my scars were more than physical. Living as a recluse in the woods, I was used to being alone, so I wasn’t happy when a certain someone was always in my space. Our first encounter was less than pleasant and tension continued at every attempt to tame me.

Secrets
I knew she was keeping secrets and I wanted to help, but she was cutting me down and cutting me off every time she opened her mouth. Our frustration with one another grew until a misunderstanding changed everything. How can I be the next guy after something so tragic? It was a challenge I wasn’t sure I was willing to take.

Buy Links

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Author Info

L.B. Dunbar loves to read to the point it might be classified as an addiction. The past few years especially she has relished the many fabulous YA authors, the new genre of New Adult, traditional romances, and historical romances. A romantic at heart, she’s been accused of having an overactive imagination, as if that was a bad thing. When not reading, she’s usually driving one of her four growing children somewhere. She grew up in Michigan, but has lived in Chicago for longer, calling it home with her husband and children.

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I’d like to say I was always a writer. I’d also like to say that I wrote every day of my life since a child. That I took the teaching advice I give my former students because writing every day improves your writing. I’d like to say I have my ten-thousand hours that makes me a proficient writer. But I can’t say any of those things. I did dream of writing the “Great American Novel” until one day a friend said: Why does it have to be great? Why can’t it just be good and tell a story?

As a teenager, I wrote your typical love-angst poetry that did occasionally win me an award and honor me with addressing my senior high school class at our Baccalaureate Mass. I didn’t keep a journal because I was too afraid my mom would find it in the mattress where I kept my copy of Judy Blume’s Forever that I wasn’t allowed to read as a twelve year old.

I can say that books have been my life. I’m a reader. I loved to read the day I discovered “The Three Bears” as a first grader, and ever since then, the written word has been my friend. Books were an escape for me. An adventure to the unknown. A love affair I’d never know. I could be lost for hours in a book.

So why writing now? I had a story to tell. It haunted me from the moment I decided if I just wrote it down it would go away. But it didn’t. Three years after writing the first draft, a sign (yes, I believe in them) told me to fix up that draft and work the process to have it published. That’s what I did. But one story let to another, and another, and another. Then a new idea came into my head and a new storyline was created.

I was accused (that’s the correct word) of having an overactive imagination as a child, as if that was a bad thing. I’ve also been accused of having the personality of a Jack Russell terrier, full of energy, unable to relax, and always one step ahead. What can I say other than I have stories to tell and I think you’ll like them. If you don’t, that’s okay. We all have our book boyfriends. We all have our favorites. Whatever you do, though, take time for yourself and read a book.

L.B. Dunbar