Friday 27 May 2016

Blog Tour, Excerpt, Review & Giveaway ~ Game Maker (Game #2) by BJ Harvey


Title: Game Maker
Series: Game Series #2
Author: B.J. Harvey
Genre: Romantic Comedy with Heat
Release: May 26, 2016
Cover Designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Photography by Lindee Robinson 
Photography Models: Victoria Morin & Chad Demchick



Book Description:

From the USA Today bestselling author of the Bliss series comes a new spin off series featuring your favorite Bliss series characters who are yet to meet their match. This time it is Zach and Danika's turn. 

I’m a gamer by nature and by profession. I’m all about strategy, performance, and coming out on top. 

Five months ago I threw caution to the wind, and in the first miscalculated step of my twenty-one-year life, I made a move on my brother’s best friend. 

The first mistake we made was keeping our relationship secret. The next was going off half-cocked when a train wreck of epic proportions hit us. 

Now our secret is secret no more. As I struggle to deal with all of the swirling emotions, conflicted feelings, and the multitude of burned bridges that I need to mend, the one person who can help me through it all is the same man I need space from. 

To fix it I’ll have to pull on my big-girl panties, focus on what I truly want in life, and put everything I have into winning the most important game I’ll ever play.

Life is a game, and it is what you make it. 

Coming out unscathed is a whole other matter.

Buy Links:



Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***


“…because this is where the game makes us or breaks us, sweetheart, and I need to know you’re willing to fight the battle in order to win the war.”


Game Maker is a BJ Harvey classic recipe and is a recipe I have come to adore. We have great character connection, witty dialogue, it is hot as hell and another two fantastic characters to add into an already fabulous mix. Romcom gold.


“With just that one kiss, you had me seriously considering the consequences of losing him and keeping you.” Woman down. Totally out for the fucking count.


Game Maker is most definitely a romantic comedy, I had so many tears of laughter while reading, between our hero and heroine and her best friend the dialogue was enough to make even the sourest of faces laugh. This is one of the things I love about a BJ Harvey book, her trademark wit and fantastic sense of humour are prevalent throughout and while she delivers her romances with passion and heat and of course a little angst, it is always perfectly balanced with fantastic one liners and side splitting scenes.


“You alright there, Dan?” 
“I don’t know…”
“What do you need…Shots? Weed? Valium? I’d offer sex, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been diving down in disco town so I might be a bit rusty.” ~ Dani & Abi 


Brothers best friend’s tropes are always entertaining reads and this is one trope that I have always loved, especially when said brother is as protective as Zander was over his younger sibling, Danika. If you have read the Bliss series, you will have already heard Zander’s story and know that he was a boy that had to grow up quick and become the man of the house. He had practically raised Danika and his brotherly emotions were more fatherly when it came to Dani. He was extremely protective and this was one thing that Dani loved and loathed about him, but she always knew he had the best intentions.


“Not only would Zander kill me, he’d drag it out and make it painful by castrating me with a rusty bread knife first. Maximum pain for the ultimate betrayal.”


Dani was one hilarious woman, she worked hard, sometimes too hard. She was a game designer, a geeky tech nerd and her nerdiness is something that only makes you love her all the more. She may be a geek, but she has a wicked sense humour, is as hot as sin and has a heart of gold. A heart that has been beating for one person and one person only, Zander’s best friend Zach, the hot and extremely delectable fire fighter. Dani has loved him from afar for a long time. The age gap had always been an issue, but now she was a grown woman, age was just a number and she wanted to make her move.


“I just laid myself out for the only guy I’ve ever truly wanted. He touched me. He branded me, and after one kiss, he owned me.”


Zach was book boyfriend perfection. It seems our fire fighter has had the hots for Dani too, but out of respect for his relationship with Zander and the obvious age gap he had never made his move. Now, though, a beautiful woman was presented to him and he was finding it harder and harder to resist the temptation, he knew that if Zander found out he would burn in a fiery hell, friendship be damned. But sometimes, love makes you do the most ridiculous things, you don’t seek it out, it finds you and sometimes that pull is so strong, resistance is futile. Will Zach have more fires to put out than he bargained for?


“She’s the type of woman I’d work myself into the ground for, and spend every day for the rest of my life knowing I was punching well above my weight but not giving a flying fuck if the whole world knew it. The type of woman for whom I’d give up everything I owned to call her mine.”


BJ Harvey delivers a realistic romance whereby there is no insta-lust, no insta-love, this has been a slow burn for both of them for a long time. The shall we shan’t we, the hesitation, the resistance all adds to a believable romance that will have you salivating for more and hoping beyond all hope that they take the plunge and just go for it, to hell with the consequences. Personally, I would have loved a few glimpses of their pasts especially as this attraction has been there for years, but that would have been the icing on the cake.


“I love my son, but Dani, he’s your brother, not your keeper.”


Dani’s flat mate, Abi, was one amazing character who I am hoping will be up next in this series. Together, these two were hilarious and this was really where BJ Harvey’s dialogue shone. These two best friends were like chalk and cheese but they just fit. All the other Bliss crew make appearances throughout and it was great to catch up with these group of friends. This motley crew are like one big huge family and a family that I feel that I am a part of. Having watched them all bloom from lonely singletons to married couples with families has been a pleasure to read about and one that I hope continues.


Excerpt:

A loud knock at the door interrupts me. My eyes widen, and Abi quirks a brow. Turning to look through the peephole, she spins back around with a huge grin on her face. “Well, well, well . . . I do believe you might have a late night gentleman caller, Ms. Roberts. Should I let him in or make him sweat?”
My heart has palpitations at the thought of Zach coming back to me—for me. What on earth could he want at midnight on a Sunday after leaving me pent up and speechless just twenty minutes ago?
Then the three shots of tequila kick in and feisty, take-no-prisoners Dani comes out to play.
“Leave him out there,” I tell her.
Abi clutches her heart with one hand and wipes away a non-existent tear with the other. “I’m so proud right now,” she says.
“Yeah, yeah . . .” I sweep my hand toward the door. “Don’t you have a job and a penis to get back to?”
“Say penis again. It makes me hot when you go all grown-up on me.”
“P. E. N. I. S,” I spell out, enunciating every letter.
He knocks again, and the look of absolute delight on Abi’s face has me biting my lip to stifle my laughter.
“You’re going to have to put him out of his misery, Dan. I’ll let him in, you can make him work hard for it, and kick him out and make him work for it all over again,” she says with an amused glint in her eye.
“You’re evil, you know that?”
“You wouldn’t have me any other way, and besides, you can’t make it too easy. He did the crime; he needs to do the time.”
“I know.”
“He’s on my shit list right now for making you cry.”
“He didn’t make me cry as such . . .”
“Almost.”
“Almost is different from actually doing it.”
He knocks again. “I can hear you, you know.”

Playlist:


Other Books in Series: 

Game Player (Game Series #1) - On sale for 99 cents!


About the Author:


BJ Harvey is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Bliss Series. She also regards herself as a smut peddler, suspense conjurer and a funny romance thinker upper.

An avid music fan, you will always find her singing some hit song badly but loving every minute of it.

She’s a wife, a mom to two beautiful girls, and hails from what she considers as the best country in the world—New Zealand.

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Sign up for her mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/MfpyP

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