Gracen has to fight the devil in her mind and the angel on her shoulder before one of them destroys her.
 
For thirteen years, Gracen Sullivan dreamed about a red-eyed demon named Hart Blackwell who tortured her every night. Her mother freaked when she found out about her daughter's "hallucinations" and forced Gracen to go to the doctor, who prescribed some very powerful medication which kept Hart out of her head for five years.
 
A week ago, Hart came back and brought a friend.
 
But something has changed, and Gracen is seeing Hart when she's awake too. And the other "friends" in her dreams? They have been found dead.
 
The police want to talk to her.
 
Her boyfriend has become distant.
 
Her dreams are becoming more and more intense.
 
Hell wants her.
 
Heaven has to stop her.
 
When push comes shoving, can Gracen fight the evil eating away inside her or will she be forced to embrace it and destroy the world?

Jessup Hart Blackwell ate my brain every night. He also ate my spleen, my liver, and my kidneys. Basically, anything he could get to, he ate. My tongue was his favorite. He said liars’ tongues were the best.
The leather straps with the weird symbols on them held me down—and quite frankly chaffed the heck out of me—while he cut and ripped away at every bit of skin, muscle, and cell I had.
All but one.
My heart.
He said it was because I didn't have one.
For years this happened until I finally told my mom who took me to the doctor who in turn gave me some medicine to induce a dreamless sleep and offered the alternative of placing me in a mental hospital if I didn't want to take it.
I chose medicine.
The nightmares stopped.
Until a week ago when I started my freshman year at the University of Tennessee at Crimson Ridge campus.
Last night, Hart brought a friend.

​Kelly Martin writes paranormal, contemporary, historical, and YA fiction. She has been married for over ten years and has three rowdy, angelic daughters. When she's not writing, she loves taking picture of abandoned houses, watching horror gamers on YouTube-- even though she's a huge wimp-- and drinking decaf white chocolate mochas. She's a total fangirl, loves the 80s and 90s, and has a sad addiction to paranormal TV shows. {Basically, she likes creepy stuff.} Her favorite characters are the very flawed 'good guys'--and 'bad guys' who don't know they are evil. She loves giving her readers books with unexpected twists and turns, but (here's a hint) most of her books have the ending spelled out in the first chapter. See if you can figure it out.

If you like Supernatural, you will love Heartless.  This book is chock full of fast-paced action held in check with gripping suspense and a dash of gruesome just to keep you on the edge or your seat.

Good versus evil are deftly juggled until you may lose sight of the demarcation. At times I felt the protagonist should pop an extra zoloft, but the bipolar nature of  her internal struggle added depth to the sometimes manic events.

This is a page-turner for paranormal fans. The plot twists and character development will satisfy their appetite for complex storylines. 

​Book Bling gives this 4 1/2 stars!

Maddie Palmer lost everything when her ex-husband betrayed her. Years later, she’s rebuilt her life. It’s safe and stable—everything she thought she wanted. Until a dangerously sexy ex-con appears in Lost Coast Harbor...
 Gabriel Reyes just did six years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s returned, determined to expose the men who set him up. His best chance at redemption is seducing the straight-laced woman working for the enemy…until he realizes he’s the one being seduced.
 As passion ignites, Gabe and Maddie find themselves drawn deeper into the corruption behind the town’s richest family… even while facing the greatest danger of all—losing their hearts.

Gabe walked straight to the corner and ran his fingers across the leaves of a ficus, his eyes almost soft.
 
He moved around the room, studying each plant, touching a few others with gentle fingers. “It’s like a jungle in here.” Gabe’s hand hovered near the orchids she kept on the mantel, but he resisted the urge to stroke the temperamental plant. “They’re all real, too.”
 
“Of course they are,” Maddie said, indignant. She might not be able to keep a relationship alive, but plants were another matter. They thrived under her care.
 
She wasn’t prepared for his expression when he turned to her. He looked…grateful?
 
“You don’t realize all the things you miss.” It didn’t seem like he was talking to her.
 
“Not a lot of plants in prison, huh?” She fought a shudder at the thought. Life without a bit of dirt and a few seeds sounded so sterile, though her rational mind knew it was nothing compared to the other things prison took from him.
 
“Not a lot of all sorts of things.” He shook off the melancholy, and she could practically see his inner devil return. Gabe’s eyes raked her, a smile tugging at his lips. “This isn’t the home I expected from a straight-laced professional woman.”
 
Maddie winced. “New furniture isn’t cheap.”
 
His laugh was unexpected. “I don’t think I’ve sat in a new piece of furniture in my life. No, I mean this.” His gesture took in everything, from her plants to her clothes to the afghan spread across her sofa. “Are you secretly a softie, Maddie?”
 
She glowered, and he laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret,” Gabe assured her.

Like so many good ideas, Lost Coast Harbor was inspired by a few rounds of margaritas. One sunny afternoon, Lily Danes and Eve Kincaid went to a Mexican restaurant for snacks and tequila and left with the idea for a new series. Inspired by their love of noir movies and 1940s crime novels, they imagined a gritty small town full of crime and corruption, where intrigue and mystery can lead to love and passion.

Suspense, revenge, steamy romance, what's not to like? Kiss of a Stranger is my first read from this author duo, and this read says it's worth a second look at upcoming novels in this debut series. The contemporary plotline was well written, and the romantic relationship between the two main characters who really do need second chances, worked well. I have two small quibbles, that kept me from giving this five stars: 1) The story started a bit slowly for me, but I always feel most writers should throw out the first chapter or so, until "after" the story starts to flow for them...and us, and 2) The hero's heart was a bit too tarnished for me at times. I don't like it when characters take things out on other people that were not their fault, and I didn't like that the heroine was already overcoming a jerk of an ex and then the "hero" took it out on her that her ex's family were behind his go to jail without passing justice. That is personal taste, of course, but then that's what an honest review is all about.

Book Bling gives this steamy second chances romance 4 Stars!