The Moreno Brothers series is made up of 5 books, one for each of the brothers – Angel, Alex, Sal and their sister Sofia and one for their best friend Romero. The series begins with Angels story, Forever Mine.
Forever Mine
Poor Sarah, she has had to up sticks and move to a new city right at the beginning of senior year. Her mum is in prison for embezzlement and she has had to move to San Diego to live with her Aunt and her family. Her cousin Valerie is in the same year at school so at least she isn’t completely on the outer. Within minutes of being in school she is lost and while looking at the guide of the school she makes eye contact with a very handsome boy. The same boy she has had a crush on since she first laid eyes on him a couple of years before. Who is this boy? He is none other than Angel Moreno, of THE Moreno brothers. Really, did she really just make a fool of herself staring at him?
As it happens the attraction is mutual and the pair get together. She isn’t one of those girls though, she isn’t going to ‘hook up’ with him, star football player or not! Regardless, Angel manages to woo Sarah and the pair begin to date. The problem? Sarah is determined to move back and live with her best friend Sydney. Oh yeah, and the fact that the very intense and even more territorial Angel doesn’t believe a boy and a girl can just be friends! Yes that’s right, the best friend that Sarah can’t wait to get home to is a boy. She didn’t lie to him, not as such, he assumed Sydney was a girl she just hasn’t found the right time to tell him different.
She didn’t count on falling in love. She also didn’t count on being caught hugging Sydney. As for Angel he didn’t count on getting his heart-broken by the only girl he has ever like enough to be exclusive with. The semester is over, she turned 18, Angel hates her and it’s time to move home. Is there anything that can make her stay?
Always Been Mine
Oh Alex, Alex, Alex (she says in a dreamy voice) you really screwed up didn’t you! During Angel and Sarah’s story we learned of Alex’s relationship with Sarah’s cousin Valerie. Though relationship is probably a stretch. They hooked up but they were never exclusive.
Now we have a whole book devoted to them, Yes I hear you – there is a God! So, fed up with this on again off again relationship where Alex is so sweet, loving (though he hasn’t told her he loves her), caring and intense for weeks at a time, then he disappears and nothing – not even a text for days or even weeks, she decided to follow him. She borrows her room-mate Isabel’s car and stakes out his home. That’s when her world comes crashing down, a scantily clad woman arrives and he lets her in. OK so she knew they weren’t exclusive but this is just the wake up call she needs, its time to get on with her life and that means leaving Alex Moreno in the past.
So a year later and fate throws them together. Isabel has coached her and she is ready to face him, she isn’t going back there – no way, she is so over Alex Moreno. Until they kiss, that one kiss is the undoing of her and she is right back to where she started. Knowing she can’t do this anymore she does the one thing guaranteed to make Alex leave her alone, she tells him she is with another man.
Alex didn’t even realise how much he missed Valerie. He has had an awful year. His College football came to an end through injury, and without his scholarship he has been really struggling. Now Valerie is back but she has another man. How did he not realise how much he missed her, how did he not realise he loved her. She should be his. How is he going to get her back? Because if he knows nothing else, he knows she has to be his!
She can’t do it, she can’t go back there. She needs to move on with her life and that means one thing, she needs to start dating. When the opportunity present itself she starts to date. She has a lot of commitments at the moment which mean she moves in the same circles as Alex, so when he see’s her with her new man he can’t handle it. Then he learns she may be in danger and he can’t walk away. He needs to get Isabel back and he needs to keep her safe.
Will she listen when he tries to tell her she was wrong about what she saw? Will she let him back in to her life? Can Alex protect her or no matter what he does will the threat to her prove to be too much?
Sweet Sofie
We first met Sofie as the 16 year old sister in Forever Mine. In this book we go back to when Sofie is a child and follow her into her young adulthood. Even then as a very young girl riding her tasselled bike up and down the road we see how protective her brothers are of her. This doesn’t get any better when she is growing up, especially when she is in her teens. And dare anyone do anything to upset her! And if you do, and you are a boy – well you may run for the hills. As if it isn’t bad enough that she has 3 older brothers – she also has Eric and Romero. Her brothers best friends and they are every bit as bad as they are. Especially Eric, he always keeps a special eye on her.
Sofie likes Eric, like really likes Eric. She is fairly sure Eric likes her too. She is also fairly sure her brothers would have his ass if he went there. The thing is though, Sofie is hell-bent on getting what she wants. A few stolen moments confirm what she already knows, he is so into her! They have to keep it a secret though, she isn’t allowed to date anyone until she is 17. Eric being 2 years older than her isn’t going to help with her brothers either.
A stolen kiss on New Years eve, which turns out not to be quite so stolen when Alex walks in, leads to all hell breaking lose. Eric is banished from the house and Sofia gets into a blazing row with her brothers. Under no circumstances is she to go anywhere near Eric and she isn’t to be alone with him – ever. So what can they do? They do wat any self-respecting teenagers do – they go behind their backs!
Sofie turn 17 and Eric ‘stakes his claim’. When Eric has to go away to work for the summer, it seems Sofie posses all the intensity as her brother and along with her fiery personality she sparks are sure to fly. Join Sofie and Eric and read about the highs, the lows and whether or not a girl and her first boyfriend can make it through all the trials, temptations and distance life has to throw at them.
Romero
Can you guess who this book is about?Ramon Romero (just don’t call him Ramon) is best friends to both Angel and Alex. Living just down the road from them they grew up together and have been friends since they were very young. Alex lives with his two uncles, the very loveable, very rough around the edges and potty mouthed Manny and Max. Two shady characters with the biggest hearts! When Romero’s father went to prison they vowed to change their ways and be good role models for the boy, and along with their mother – Romero’s grandmother they raised him. A pretty fine job they did too!
The only one of the group not to go to College, Romero had his own goals. He wanted to set up his own security company. He worked the door at his uncles’ bar and other clubs in the area to save the capital he needed and also do all the courses he needed to get certified. Eventually he gets to set up his own company and gets his Private Investigators Licence. Things really are on the up for Romero.
Romero is at a wedding shower when he meets Isabel Montenegro. She intrigued him from the very first time she opened her mouth. She is a refined educated lady, certainly not his type and he certainly isn’t hers. There is something there though, a spark – a connection. He needs to find out what that’s all about.
Isabel is a bit of a control freak, everything has a place and everything is in that place. You won’t find a thing out-of-place in her life. Romero has no place in her life, he just isn’t her type. He is a guy with a foul mouth and a short temper. Why is it then that she finds herself more and more drawn to him? Is she actually starting to fall in love with this guy?
Romero may not have gone to College but he is a good guy with a heart of gold, his family and friends are the most important people in the world to him and he is fiercely loyal. All this stuff doesn’t matter to Isabel’s family though, they are all about the College education and standing in society. You could be the biggest asshole on the planet but as long as you have a Masters or are a high-ranking army officer then that’s OK. Isabel is reluctant to tell her family about Romero and this ignites his fuse. He doesn’t understand why she doesn’t tell them, unless she is ashamed of him! When he finds out that she humoured her sister by going on a date that she had arranged it is the last straw. He walks out of the apartment leaving Isabel distraught. Romero goes home to his Uncles’ and hits the bottle, after a heart to heart he realises he hasn’t been honest either. He hasn’t introduced her to his family, but this time it is because she is afraid of what she would think about them!
As expected he isn’t good enough for her family. Isabel’s sister continues to try to come between them and meddling, creating situations where Isabel is with other men – often under Romero’s nose. One particular occasion causes Romero to flip and become extremely aggressive and violent. He stands to lose everything – the woman he loves, the career he was worked so hard to forge for himself, his freedom. Isabel’s family want her to have nothing to do with him any more and believe she is in danger. Will Isabel’s family convince her, is Romero just too rough around the edges? Is everything as it seems with Isabel’s family and is Romero really the bad guy in this situation?
Making You Mine
While we have seen Sal pop up in the previous books he is the character we know the least about. He is the oldest of the Moreno boys. Away at College doing a Business Masters so he could expand the family business he was less of a fixture than the others but now he is home and he has his own story to tell!
WIth the family business expanding and a lot of the experienced staff gone to get the new restaurant up and running Alex is left short-staffed in the restaurant. Sal is overseeing both restaurants and is taking care of the hiring – Alex is too soft and be tough enough with the interviewees – heaven knows what they would end up with!
Grace Zendejas is running late for her interview, great start. She is also wearing a pair of glasses she doesn’t need, and they are giving her a headache. Well she had to do something, everyone keeps telling her that she is too young, too inexperienced to work in their kitchen. They won’t even let her show them how good she is. If they would just let her show them, they would be blown away, but they all know better.
It turns out that the ass that interviewed her today was no better. He even had the cheek to offer her a job tending bar. She really needed that job too, she needs to find a place for her and her sister to live – they can’t keep living with a mother who couldn’t care less and a step father who seems to care a little too much, if you know what i mean. When she doesn’t hear anything after a few days she decides its time to swallow her pride, a job tending bar pays more than not having a job at all. When she goes back though Sal isn’t there, she meets Alex – a younger much more pleasant version of Sal. She finds out Sal knows she lied about her age – she swears she would have come clean, after he let her show what she could do. Alex gives her the job and she starts work right away. It turns out she is just as good behind the bar as she is in the Kitchen.
Sal walks into the restaurant and can’t believe what he is seeing. He hasn’t been able to get Grace out of his head for days, he doesn’t know what it is about her but she is haunting his every thought. Is he imagining her behind the bar or did Alex really go over his head and hire her? As the tension crackles between them for days Sal gets increasingly uncomfortable. Grace is feeling it to and finds it unnerving to be around him. The only thing more disappointing than him being at the restaurant when she turns up for work is when he isn’t there.
Sal is forced to show his hand when Oscar, his long time friend and staff member takes a shine to Grace and he tells her to back off. Oscar unwittingly lets slip to Grace about Sal’s feeling for her. They finally get over themselves and get it together and in true Moreno style it gets intense – fast. Though just like Alex, Sal screws up. Major league screws up. It seems he has gone off to Vegas, got drunk, slept with his stalker and got her pregnant. A fact the woman is only too happy to tell Grace – in a restaurant full of people!
How the hell could he do this to her? He was talking about forever. How could he betray her like this, and get someone pregnant? Grace vows that she will never speak to him again. She is heartbroken. So heartbroken she is making herself ill. She has been offered to make all her dreams come true with an investor who is looking for a bit more than business, unfortunately our Grace is a bit too naive to see that!
Sofie just can’t believe that Sal would do this to Grace, and whats more Sal has no recollection. She hires Romero To investigate the case, things just don’t add up to her.
Can Romero save Sal’s ass? Is this woman everything she claims to be? Can Sal stop Grace from making a big mistake with a guy who wants more than she wants to give? Is Sal going to be a daddy? Has heartbreak brought about a relapse of Grace’s childhood illness? Will Grace forgive Sal and can she ever trust him again?
A lot of questions, you will have to grab a copy to get the answers!
OK so I don’t think you need to ask me what I thought of these books. I loved them! 5 books were read in 6 days. How did I find the time? I put the children to bed and I sat on my backside and read for 6 straight hours a night. I also read on the bus, at my breaks in College and when the children entertained themselves. I even read sitting in the passenger side as my husband drove the car. I was hooked right from the very first story. I know there is a lot of reading in this review but after reading all of the books I didn’t think it would be fair to just review one.
I can’t recommend them highly enough to you. If you enjoy young adult and contemporary romance then you have to read these books. They don’t rely on a lot of highly erotic sex scenes to keep the reader entertained – it has a story for that. A really good story. If you enjoy books filled with angst, suspense, tension and drama – books like Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster and Tammara Webber’s Easy (Don’t worry that review is high on my to-do list) then you will really enjoy Elizabeth Reyes’ Moreno Brothers Series. There isn’t much more for me to say other than – go read them!!
Grab a copy of Forever Mine to start with, you will find the books on:
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Mine-The-Moreno-Brothers/dp/1475244207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359413984&sr=8-1&keywords=forever+mine+by+elizabeth+reyes
Right at this very moment it is free! How long that will last i do not know
Kobo http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Forever-Mine-The-Moreno-Brothers/book-aVXPyYOVzk2xRjCB2wHl4Q/page1.html?s=Au8tSZavsk-FVuukHC0_Gw&r=6
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/forever-mine-elizabeth-reyes/1029126053
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ie/book/forever-mine-moreno-brothers/id445182195?mt=11
The following is the interview with Elizabeth Reyes, to date (with the exception of Carmel Harrington, Great friend and Author of Beyond Graces Rainbow another must read, just make sure the tissues are handy) is by far my favourite interview to have done. Even through email i get a sense of the type of person Elizabeth Reyes is. Honest, full of fun – maybe even a bit of devilment, and very grounded. A perfect dinner or drinking companion!
Who is Elizabeth Reyes?
Elizabeth is a wife (19 years in a few weeks! eeks!) a soccer mom of two teens (one will be an adult in two weeks DOUBLE eeeeks!) with a passion for story telling.
How did you know you were a writer?
I didn’t. I just wrote because it’s what I’ve always loved doing. But I never once thought it would be something I’d be doing as a career. It was more of a hobby a secret passion I never even talked about. I never queried a story to a publisher because I honestly thought it was just something I would do for fun on the side. Then self publishing came along and I decided why not? Even if my books weren’t selling I know I’d still be writing because it’s what I’ve always done to relax.
If you couldn’t write what would you be doing?
Probably working in the same field I’ve always worked. Communications. I worked for one phone company or cell phone company in customer service and sales since I graduated from high school and I was good at it. But nothing beats getting up and going straight to my desk and seeing what my readers have to say today and what my characters are up to. =)
Do you think the advent of the ereader has been of benefit to authors trying to break through?
Absolutely. It’s changed the world of publishing for sure. Many of us who would’ve never considered trying to query publishers or even agents are now being queried by them. The tables have turned and its a very exciting time for us authors.
I miss the Moreno boys lol, Do you miss a character once you a finished with a book or series?
Every time. When I’m working on a book I eat breathe and sleep the characters for months. So when I’m finally done I feel we’ve broken up. I’m feeling that right now with Hector. =( As a matter of fact when I first wrote Forever Mine I didn’t intend to make it a series until I finished and missed all the characters so much I decided there needed to be more. I think this is why all my books tend to turn into series. I admit I cried when I finished Making You Mine.
Who was your favourite in the series?
I get asked this a lot and it’s like asking me to pick my favorite child. I love them all equally. I poured my heart in soul into each story so I really can’t choose a favorite. But I will always admit while Romero by far has been the most intense and him and his foul mouthed uncles were also the funnest to write.
You spend a lot of time writing, do you get to read much?
Sadly not as much as I wish I could. My mind is different now. It’s constantly in create mode so any free time I get I need to write. But I do still read just not nearly as much as I used to.
I haven’t yet read any of the 5th Street series, but i have read Fate, the first in the Fate series, a spin-off from the Moreno Brothers. Can i hazard a guess that Enzo (Lorenzo Moreno, Vincent’s brother) is next in line for his own story?
Enzo will get his own story but he is not the next. There are two other characters in the Moreno Brothers series who need their happy ending badly. Then we will see what I have in store for poor Lorenzo. 😉
For readers that have read the Moreno Brothers books, what can we expect from the other two series’? Always expect intense heroes who love very passionately, unexpected twists, and lots of drama. It’s what I love to experience in a read therefor love writing.
There is a lot of talk about food in the Moreno Brothers stories (I have never been so hungry while reading!), does this stem from a love of cooking or is it more about mexican tradition?
LOL I think both. Many of the dishes I speak of are dishes I love to make but there is always grubbing going on in our family gatherings so yeah both.
You are jumping between writing for the Fate series and the 5th Street series, are you trying to kill us?
No I’m not trying to kill you guys I promise! When I wrote the Moreno Brothers series I wrote them back to back straight through. By the time I was done I was SO ready for a change. So when I decided Vince and Rose would get their own story and that there would be a spin-off series I decided I’d space it out this time. Not just with the Fate series but any new series I start on from here on. One thing I do promise is I will never leave you hanging on what happens with a particular couple unless I plan on putting out their sequel very soon after.
I have a list of books that i am waiting on to come in the first half of this year, are there any books that you can’t wait to come out?
Yes I have a LOT so I’ll just name a few off the top of my head. Covet from Tracey Garvis-Graves, Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire, and Never Too Far from my critique partner Abbi Glines (luckily with Abbie I get to read all her books before anyone else. Not teasing! Not teasing! Just bragging! lol)
I know you enjoy baking, what is your favourite thing to bake?
Hands down my chicken enchilada casserole. The one Grace makes in Making You Mine. It’s a family favorite and what I’m asked to make at all the gatherings.
You love to sing but can you sing?
If you ask the sober me or my husband, not really but ask me after I’ve had a few and I’ll tell you I can put Mariah Carey to shame and then proceed to show you! So if you value your ears please don’t ever ask me then!
If you could go back in time would you change anything?
Maybe only a few small things about how I started off self publishing. I was really clueless and I made lot of newbie mistakes I wish I hadn’t but live and learn right? Other than that nope.
Angel, Alex, Sal, Eric & Romero, which you : Marry, Date, Friends with benefits, Snog and Best friends with?
Marry: Alex. I’m a sucker for BIG muscles and over protective men.
Date: Angel though I’m sure I’d fall in love and want more. =/
Friends with Benefits: Romero but that wouldn’t work as I’m sure he doesn’t do that and things would get ugly. =O
Snog and Best Friends: Eric. I love him to death but Sofie would kick my ass if I tried for anything else 😉
Sal: I’d probably just snog and be best friends with because I’m way too messy and unorganized for a guy like him to to even date! But snogging’s good. 😉
After The Final Chapters 