Book Review: Be With Me by J Lynn

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Genre: 

New Adult, mind Contemporary, Romance

Pages: 

365

Part of a Series?:

The second book of the Wait for You series

Release Date: 

February 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

Check your local bookstore!

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

Teresa Hamilton is having a rough year—she’s in love with her big brother’s best friend, but he hasn’t spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. It’s time for Plan B – college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.

Jase Winstead has a huge secret that he’s not telling anyone. Especially not his best friend’s incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship. But it doesn’t help that all he can think about kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.

As they’re thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess can’t keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what they’re willing to risk to be together, and what they’re willing to lose if they’re not…

My Review:

I love love love love love love love love love this book. I can’t even begin to describe this book. I have read this entire series, including the novellas now, and I still love this one the most. I don’t know if its because I feel a connection to Tessa, if I understand Jase and the way he pushes away Tessa and the familiarity I have with that feeling, the connection I have with Jase’s secret, or the fact that he brings her freakin’ cupcakes all the time…but this book blew me away. I absolutely adore the first book, but its definitely this book that completely sold me on the whole series.

First off, I love that there’s a dynamic between Jase and Tessa right away. I love that. I love that there’s no build up; you jump right in. Immediately there is a connection between these two, so you’re hooked and you want them to be together from the very beginning, from the very first moment that they talk to each other. I adore the both of them so much.

And they both drive you insane. Well, not Tessa. I adore Tessa. I love that she’s been through so much. She really has. She has loved someone who treated her so terribly and she’s lost the ability to do the one thing she’s really wanted to do. And yet she keeps moving. She has this resilience that is just incredible. She keeps pushing forward and she still believes in taking risks and she still believes in falling in love. That’s incredible and admirable and I love Tessa. Being compared to Tessa by my friends meant the world to me because I love her as a character.

And I connected with Jase because I want to punch him in the face and make out with him at the same time because he’s so frustrating! He has things going on his life and he holds back, not realizing that a person who truly loves him is going to handle all of that, is going to be there for all of that, despite and because of the faults in himself and his life. And I was going through such a similar thing when I was reading that book and I was like OMG YES TESSA and OMG JASE NO!

Plus I just love JLA. She writes great characters, fantastic stories, she makes laugh, both because she’s funny and she also writes the most ridiculous things in her novels (for realsies?) and I just absolutely love her. Her sex scenes make any person want to jump into a cold shower. That scene where they please each other in Jase’s car on the side of the road. My. God. It kills me. It KILLS me. JLA makes me want to have an exciting sex life because she just writes these beautiful love stories.

Lastly, Jase brings Tessa cupcakes and cupcakes are, like, the best things in the entire world and I probably would marry anyone who brought me cupcakes like that. I’m just saying ;)

Rating: 

5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: The Heir by Kiera Cass

22918050Genre: 

Young Adult, side effects Romance, visit this site Dystopian (?)

Pages: 

352 pages


Part of a Series?:

The fourth novel in the Selection series

Release Date: 

May 5th, ailment 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

iBooks

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she’d put off marriage for as long as possible.

But a princess’s life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can’t escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn’t expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn’s heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

My Review:

I was so insanely excited for this book. I remember it took me ages to read The Selection and when I finally did, I blew through it and The Elite and devoured The One when it came out. To read a book about America and Maxon’s children? UGH. I was dying. I love that we get to see more of Kiera’s world without stretching the story out too far. Its like Tammy Pierce; we get to see the world of Tortall but underneath the banner of other characters. I think when you can do that, its just wonderful.

And Kiera really accomplishes that. She takes this world she created and expands under Eadlyn’s point of view. The problems that are left unsolved at the end of The Heir are being answered about eighteen years later and I think its incredible. It shows that things aren’t so easily wrapped up. Sure, in the first trilogy, they vow to abolish the caste system and all that but its not that simple, and you see that struggle and the problems that come with abolishing a system that had been in place for so long and I think that’s awesome. I love that things don’t end up happily ever after. That’s the mark of good world building, knowing that you can’t wrap up everything in a bow. Its fabulous.

Plus we get to see so many old characters and its just awesome. Its fun to visit old characters, see where they are at and all of that.

The one issue I had with the book is that it was hard to love Eadlyn at first. I think she’s very much a product of her environment and how she was raised and so sometimes you have to remind yourself that but she is SO spoiled and its hard to deal with it. I kind of want to punch her sometimes. But I love all the boys (its so hard to choose; I don’t know who I want her to end up with!) and I like the interactions she has with people. And I love that she is genuinely good person who just might be a little bit too naive.

I’m really excited for the next book. I think Eadlyn is a great character and I think the fact that we aren’t quite sure who to root for is both frustrating and exciting! Now I just have to wait patiently for the next book!

Rating: 

4 out of 5 Stars

Music Monday: “Home” by Our Last Night

“Home” by Our Last Night

I’m coming home!

The way those eyes look at me as I’m about to leave
I’ll hold you close, pharm can’t you see
That I just wanna stay with you, information pills I promised you
Write you letters as I’ll be back soon
Don’t you worry, this web I won’t let us fall apart
(Won’t let us fall apart)

No matter how far we find ourselves
Our love will keep us close
I want you to know, you will never be alone
I’m coming home, I’m coming home
I want you to know, I’m coming home!

Everyday it gets harder and harder to breathe
Why can’t we make believe
That we’ve got it all and we’re young and we’re free
You’re really all I need
I never found the right words to say
Kept it all inside, ignoring everything
I get lost trying to close the distance between us
But I will follow my heart back to you

No matter how far we find ourselves
Our love will keep us close
I want you to know, you will never be alone
I’m coming home, I’m coming home
I want you to know, I’m coming home

Take my hand just one more time
It’s safe to leave your doubts behind
I will be with you through the lonely days and the lonely nights
I will follow my heart back to you
I will follow my heart back to you
Take my hand just one more time
It’s safe to leave your doubts behind
I will be with you through the lonely days and the lonely nights

Take my hand just one more time
It’s safe to leave your doubts behind
I will be with you through the lonely days and the lonely nights

No matter how far we find ourselves
Our love will keep us close
I want you to know, you will never be alone
I’m coming home, I’m coming home
I want you to know, I’m coming home

Find Our Last Night

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / iTunes

 

June Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2015:

150

Am I On Track: 

6 books behind. Not even stressing. I’ve been writing SO much and so its hard to be mad that I’m not reading when I’m writing so much :)

Books Read So Far: 

68

Total Books For June: 

9

The Perfect Game

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Rule

17866388

Scorched

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I can’t even begin to explain the impact that this book had on me. Seriously. It blew my mind and it drove me to get help for myself. To read more about it, treatment check out my open letter to JLA here

Coming in from the Cold

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One Week Girlfriend

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The Fill-In Boyfriend

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Signs Point to Yes (ARC)

24464110

Tonight the Streets Are Ours (ARC)

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Jet

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*****

SO MUCH NA!

LOL

How did you do this month? Any book recommendations? Share them in the comments!!

The Awakened Has Officially Been Submitted to Swoon Reads!

The Awakened Cover

 

And I could SUPER use your help.

As most of you know, what is ed I wrote a novel called The Awakened. It is a science fiction romance in the YA category (of course) and it is my baby. Read the synopsis here:

Eighteen year old Zoey Valentine is concerned with two things: surviving the multitude of self-defense classes her dad makes her take to keep her safe in their New York City neighborhood and avoiding her school bully, Ash Matthews, whose latest transgression includes dumping glitter on her during fourth period. College is just around the corner and she’s ready for it. 

That’s when the virus hits, wiping out a third of the population in a matter of weeks. If that weren’t frightening enough, the bodies of the victims disappear and suddenly reappear, awakened from their dead state. They’re like zombies, but worse: faster, smarter, working together to get the one thing they crave, human flesh. 

The United States is in a panic and then the government decides the unthinkable: to bomb every major city overrun with these awakened victims. Now Zoey is on the run, with her dad and Ash, desperate to find a place of safety amongst the ruined remains of the country.

I worked hard on it for over nine months and I’ve been working hard for nearly a year to get it published. 

It is NOT an easy road. It’s not. But I’m not giving up. It’s just too important to me to do that. So I’m going another route, in the hopes that I can find a way to get this from my computer and into YOUR hands.

Swoon Reads is an incredible publishing company, and they are a part of Macmillan, which is a DREAM company for me. Legitimately a dream company. And they do this absolutely incredible thing: they allow you to upload your manuscript (as long as it’s romance!) and let the audiences (YOU) choose what books to be published.

I’ve read a TON of their books. I’ve actually just recently gotten a few more in the mail as ARCs. You guys pick amazing books and they publish him and I think its just completely fantastic. Its a wonderful thing and I thought, you know what, why not try that for The Awakened?!

So that’s what I’m doing.

And that’s where YOU come in.

What I need you guys to do…what I would absolutely LOVE and APPRECIATE if you did, is to head to the link below (you can also click the cover of The Awakened above) and go and read it and rate it and help me get this thing published :)

Now if you don’t like it, that’s okay! Its not for everyone, I know that. I hope you don’t give me a bad rating but don’t EVER feel obligated to give me a GOOD rating. I just know that there are a TON of you that have expressed interest in reading the book and now you can in. And if you like it, you can help me out. And that means a LOT to me.

SO if you can, if you’d like to, if you want to, head over to this link:

http://www.swoonreads.com/m/the-awakened

and read and rate The Awakened. I would so appreciate it!

Thank you guys :)

Happy Reading!

Happy Anniversary Percy Jackson! + Giveaway

 

I am SO incredibly excited to announce that I will be part of an amazing celebration this year. Yes, this year we are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This partly makes have such happy feelings and it also makes me feel very old because that means I was 17 years old when these books came out! CRAZY! But I love them and their counterparts and I am excited to be part of the celebration.

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