KCBR Blog

Someone Knows by Vi Keeland is LIVE.  An English professor’s deadly past comes back to haunt her in this chilling and sexy thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland. Check out my spoiler-free review of Someone Knows.

Synopsis:

As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end.

She knows this story. It’s all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end—with the teacher dead. Because she was the one who killed him.

Someone knows what Elizabeth did twenty years ago and her secret is about to be exposed, but who is the mystery student submitting the chapters? In an effort to find out, Elizabeth returns to her Louisiana hometown where it soon becomes clear that no matter how many years have gone by, she can’t escape her past.

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Spoiler-free Review of Someone Knows

Check out my spoiler-free review and read an excerpt from The Drummer's Heart by Penelope Ward.  This rock star romance is on my Best of 2025 list and total Kindle Crack!  This is a standalone/no cliffhanger. Read it using Kindle Unlimited on 2/23.  

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COVER CREDITS:

Cover Photography: © Wander Aguiar Photography

Cover Model: Jerrin Strenge

Cover Design: Letitia Hasser, RBA Designs

Don’t say her name.

That was the one rule my bandmates followed, because they knew how much it messed me up to think about her, especially on tour.

My ex, Nicole.

The one who got away and the woman who still owned every piece of my heart.

After our divorce, I threw myself into the rock scene, trying to forget my heartbreak.

Three years after we split, a phone call from Nicole changed everything.

She told me her grandmother wasn’t doing well.

Mimi was still family to me, and she apparently had one wish before dying: to spend time with us—Nicole and me.

With Mimi’s caretaker away on vacation, it would be the ideal time for us to move in with her for a couple of weeks.

Of course, I couldn’t refuse.

But there was a catch.

Nicole apparently never told her that we’d gotten a divorce.

She hadn’t believed Mimi could handle it, because her grandmother loved me so much.

So, not only would I have to see Nicole again, but I’d be pretending to still be her husband.

Two weeks in a tiny house in a small town with the woman who broke my heart. Or was it me who broke hers?

It was complicated.

And it was about to be a heck of a lot more complicated sharing one bed in the guest room with a woman who wasn’t mine anymore.

Spoiler-free review:

The Drummer's Heart by Penelope Ward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was up until 4 a.m. binge-reading The Drummer’s Heart by Penelope Ward. This book was utterly addictive and unputdownable—I couldn’t stop even if I tried. It consumed me. A week later, I’m still dealing with a massive book hangover, and I can’t stop thinking about Atticus and Nicole and their hard-earned journey to finding themselves—and each other again.
We first met them in The Rocker’s Heart, the first book in this series of standalones. You don’t have to read The Rocker’s Heart before diving into The Drummer’s Heart (but you should because it’s also AMAZING). Atticus is officially my second-book husband, lol. Some readers fall for the MC and call them book boyfriends—well, Atticus is book husband-worthy. In my heart, he now stands beside Jake Green from Penelope’s Jake Undone/Jake Understood series. Books like The Drummer’s Heart are exactly why I love reading romance books. This story will pull on your heartstrings and never let go—or, in my case, my drumsticks (yes, I play too). The Drummer’s Heart has already secured a spot on my Best of 2025 list. Thank you for this incredible story, Penelope. This book is pure perfection!

Sneak Peek of The Drummer's Heart.

Copyright © 2024

By Penelope Ward

While she was out of the room, I prepared her coffee just the way she liked it. I’d nearly forgotten just how much I loved taking care of her. I felt nostalgic for a moment as I poured in just the right amount of sugar. But taking care of her wasn’t my job anymore. I couldn’t help enjoying these little moments of delusion, though, while I still had them. In less than two weeks, we’d be apart again, and I’d go back to my life without her. This time here would seem like a dream.

Nicole emerged again wearing a cute, floral dress that was almost worse than her shirt with no bra. It had a low neckline and her beautiful breasts were practically busting out of it. I had to wonder if she’d selected that outfit to torture me. She’d also sprayed on a fresh burst of Egyptian musk. I licked my lips.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize my not wearing underwear was that noticeable.” She looked down at her chest. “I’ll cover up from now on,” she said. But the glimmer in her eye told me she had no real intention of accommodating my request.

Okay. She’s definitely f*cking with me. “You drive me crazy,” I growled under my breath.

Suddenly, my attention was diverted to Mimi’s room. I heard voices. I narrowed my eyes. “Who the hell is here?”

“I don’t know.” Nicole walked down to her grandmother’s room as I followed.

There was a woman standing there talking to Mimi.

“Hi there.” She smiled. “I’m Lori McFadden. I live next door.”

“Oh…” Nicole tilted her head. “Hello.”

“I hope you don’t mind. Adele gave me a key a while back, and I check in on her from time to time. It’s good to see you both. She’s always talking about her granddaughter and grandson-in-law.”

“Aren’t they the most beautiful couple you’ve ever seen?” Mimi beamed.

Nicole looked over at me. I was still fired up by her little dress and wanted an excuse to touch her. I decided to play the part for a moment. “Thank you so much,” I said. “It’s our pleasure to be here with Mimi.” I wrapped my arm around Nicole, bringing her close. She flinched at first but then relaxed her body into mine.

I rubbed my thumb along her waist.

Nicole squirmed and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry if I seemed surprised to see you here, Lori. I didn’t realize she’d given anyone a key.”

“Only recently. Just in case her worker can’t be here or is running late. She has my number if she ever needs me.”

Nicole nodded. “Well, I appreciate that so much.”

I tightened my grip around her waist and pulled her closer. “We appreciate that.”

Nicole looked up at me; her face was beet red, and I f*cking loved it. I leaned in and kissed her softly on the forehead. Her eyes were still slightly closed when I pulled back to look at her. As much as I wanted to hang on, I let go and put her out of her misery.

Nicole couldn’t get away fast enough as she rushed past me through the kitchen and into the bedroom. She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “Don’t do that again.”

My stomach sank. It hurt to hear her say that, even if I had crossed the line. “Don’t…what specifically?”

“Touch me.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t touch me again like that.”

That felt like a knife to the heart. “I thought we were pretending to be married,” I whispered. “Married people touch each other.”

Her chest heaved. “Yeah, well, I can’t handle that.”

“Your nipples can’t handle it, at least. They’re hard as f*cking rocks right now. It’s obvious why you don’t want me to touch you, Nicole. It isn’t that you can’t handle it. It’s that you like it. And you don’t want to like it.”

She looked down as her cheeks turned pinker by the second.

My voice was strained. “You tell me not to touch you. And yet you’re intentionally trying to torture me. That f*cking dress. You wore it on purpose because you knew it made your tits look so damn good. And you wanted me to suffer.”

Her gaze lifted to meet mine. “Maybe…”

“You don’t think I’m tortured enough? You put that damn dress on and tell me not to touch you?” I leaned in so she could feel what she was doing to me. “You get off on edging me?” As her breathing became heavier, I inched closer. “You don’t want me to touch you because it makes you feel things you’re trying not to feel? Is that what it is?”

She looked away. “I don’t know…”

I placed my hand on her chin, moving her face to look at me again. “You used to beg me to touch you.”

She licked her lips, and it made me yearn to do the same, to taste her again.

“For the record, Nicole, I will nevernot be yours to touch. Nor would I be able to pretend for a second that I don’t want you to touch me. You never have to ask permission.” My chest pressed into hers. “You were looking at me our first night here like you wantedto touch me. When I came out of the shower, I could see it in your eyes. Desire. You weren’t happy about it, but it was there. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Indiscretion by Vi Keeland is LIVE and available to download right now in Kindle Unlimited. Check out my spoiler-free review below. Without a doubt, Indiscretion secured a top spot on my Best of 2025 favorites list, and it's only the beginning of the year! Indiscretion has a limited-time special release price so grab it today before the price goes up!  And it's also available in Kindle Unlimited!  

✔ Office romance

✔ One bed

✔ He's her new boss 

BUY LINKS:  Download using Kindle Unlimited #affiliatelinks

Kindle https://a.co/d/37oN6gm

Audio 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝐴𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤, 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟!

Special Edition Illustrated cover: https://bit.ly/3ZNmnxP

COVER CREDITS:

Model:  Jeffrey Wiegers

Cover designer: Sommer Stein, Perfect Pear Creative

Photographer: Marq Mendez

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222277450-indiscretion 

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF INDISCRETION 

Love Harder by Monica James is live. It is the follow-up to Monica's memoir.  By the way, the author and her boyfriend are on the cover! Check out my spoiler-free review below. 

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Synopsis:

LOVE.
O
V
E

Once upon a time, I looked at love through rose-tinted glasses because love is meant to conquer all, right?

However, was I just a hopeless romantic at heart, chasing the proverbial happily ever after?

Being a romance author, one may think I know what I’m doing when it comes to love. But I hate to spoil the ending for you, dear reader; love and me, we aren’t friends. And we haven’t been for quite some time.

That’s not because I don’t believe in love.

On the contrary.

And that’s the reason we are here…again.

We all have that one person.

For me, he caught me unaware, and that’s when life usually screams KEEP UP!

And most times, we can’t.

If you’ve read Love Hard, then you know how love and I were no longer on speaking terms. But I wrote something which was a sign from the heavens. Or perhaps, hell…

I’ve learned that good men are like unicorns. Everyone talks about them, but no one actually sees them.

How I’m eating my words because I’ve found my unicorn. But does that mean I’ve finally learned my lessons in love? Is your beloved narrator about to get her HEA after all?

Buckle up, bestie, things are about to get wild.

Love hits you when you least expect it…and we are never ready for the fall.

Review of Love Harder

AUTHOR BIO

Monica James spent her youth devouring the works of Anne Rice, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.

When she is not writing, Monica runs her own business, but she always finds a balance between the two. She enjoys writing twisted AF stories, hoping to terrify her readers...just a little.

She is a bestselling author in the U.S.A., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and the U.K.

Monica James resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her Unicorn, and her three crazy cats. She is slightly obsessed with red lipstick, heels, and crime documentaries, and is that person who always runs late. 

AUTHOR LINKS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormonicajames

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1948025312080306

Twitter: https://twitter.com/monicajames81

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6937440.Monica_James

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Website: https://authormonicajames.com

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