Book Review: Wait for You by J. Lynn

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago–an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe–please God–make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing.

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet.

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for.

My Review:

A couple months ago, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway held by the lovely ladies of the BookNerdBabes and got my hands on a copy of this book. I love Jennifer Armentrout very much and I was so glad to read this book by her. I figured if I was going to start diving into more new adult, a book by her is a good way to start.

And I’m so glad I read this one. I’ve read several NA books since completing this one but I absolutely adore this one and it holds a special place in my heart for sure. Cam and Avery have a beautiful story and I love them the entire book.

First off, let’s talk about Avery. What I’ve noticed a lot about NA books is that the main characters tend to have tragic or dramatic pasts that keep them from trusting members of the opposite sex. And sometimes it can fall very flat and be incredibly boring. But that’s the thing about Avery…everything she is, everything she does, all feels incredibly genuine and I love her. I love her vulnerability and her determination and her humor and her tenacity and all of her.

Then we bring in Cam. Who is one of those boys that you both want to smack upside the head and also make out with. A lot. Sigh. He’s frustrating and charming and it’s what makes him feel real as hell. He obviously wants Avery, but he never pushes. He teases for sure but he never pushes her further than she feels comfortable and I love that about him. He genuinely cares for her and that’s what makes me want them together more than anything.

I’ve been looking for some really good NA romances lately and I was so pleased when I found this one. The story of Cam and Avery is real and believable. It’s sweet and sexy and I get torn between going “awwww” and rushing to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. It’s exactly what you want in a good romance and Jennifer delivers on every page.

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Music Monday: “Somewhere in Neverland” by All Time Low

April 27, 2015April 28, 20151 Comment

I get to see All Time Low (and Issues, medications eek!) on Saturday so I have to share an All Time Low song this week. It just makes sense. Of course.

“Somewhere in Neverland” by All Time Low

Say goodbye to the halls and the classes
Say hello to a job and the taxes
The weekends with old friends spilling into 9 to 5 routine
Tell me how you feel over and done with
Like your life is a map with no compass to guide, physician
At the bar drinkin’ way too much
We sing along to “Forever Young”.

So here we go again
Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me
I know I sound crazy
Don’t you see what you do to me?
I wanna be your lost boy
Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away
I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way
I can be your lost boy, your last chance
Your “everything better” plan
Oh, somewhere in Neverland
(Somewhere in Neverland)

We’ll start a life of the plain and the simple
Of great times with far better people
And weekends with our friends
Laughing about the wine that stains their teeth
We’ll talk about how your parents separated and
How you don’t wanna make the same mistakes as them
I’ll say it’s all about stickin’ it out
And trying to feel forever young

So here we go again
Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me
I know I sound crazy
Don’t you see what you do to me?
I want to be your lost boy
Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away
I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way
I can be your lost boy, your last chance
Your “everything better” plan
Oh, somewhere in Neverland

So here we go again
Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me
I know I sound crazy
Don’t you see what you do to me?
I want to be your lost boy
Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away
I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way
I can be your lost boy, your last chance
Your “everything better” plan
Oh, somewhere in Neverland
Oh, somewhere in Neverland
(Somewhere in Neverland)

Find All Time Low

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / Tumblr / iTunes

Book Review: The Deal by Elle Kennedy

April 26, 2015April 24, 20153 Comments

Genre:

New Adult, information pills Contemporary, Romance

Pages:

358

Part of a Series?:

The first in the Off-Campus series

Release Date:

February 24th, 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

Check your local bookstore!

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice… even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

…and it’s going to be oh so good.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

My Review:

In my continued quest to find really good sports related NA romances, I found The Deal by Elle Kennedy, and I’m so incredibly glad that I did.

I’m becoming more of a hockey fan as I read more and more romances that take place along the hockey life. Seriously. I might watch more hockey.

I liked The Deal a lot because while it had some similarities to Sarina Bowen and her series, it really stood on its own. While there was a definite seriousness to The Deal, there’s also a lightheartedness too. It was awesome just to see these two characters come together, under the weirdest circumstances. Hannah enlists the help of Garrett to win the heart of another boy and instead falls for him. He’s sexy and impossible and I know he drives me crazy, but I’m with Hannah…he leaves me panting and wanting more too.

I love Hannah the most though. She’s so…real and she makes me laugh. I love that she falls madly in love with a boy she barely knows and enlists the help of Garrett to figure out how to get him. It’s absolutely fantastic and sounds like a romantic comedy where the plan is obviously doomed to fail but you enjoy the journey to the explosion any way. You know that Garrett helping Hannah is just going to lead to them falling in love but I loved every single minute of it.

Simply put, I enjoyed this book. I loved Garrett and Hannah and I loved their antics and their ups and downs and I loved the integration of hockey and I loved Logan too, who had a small part but will be in the next book and my god I can’t wait for that! Elle has a way of making you care not just for her main characters, but for all the people she introduces and I love that.

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: The Ivy Years Series by Sarina Bowen

April 25, 2015April 24, 2015Leave a comment

Genre:

New Adult, viagra 100mg Contemporary, Romance

Pages:

A lot

Part of a Series?:

4 books + 1 Novella

The Year We Fell Down
The Year We Hid Away
Blonde Date
The Understatement of the Year
The Shameless Hour

Release Date:

N/A

You Can Find the Book At:

Check your local bookstore!

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble (You can get the full series PLUS novella for 6.99 on Nook!)

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Life at the elite Harkness College is brought to you in four tales, each one sexier and more heartbreaking than the last. Contains: hockey hotties, snarky T-shirts, a slow-burn love affair, a liar (with reasons,) a virgin (with reasons,) and one adorkable basketball player.

Book 1: The Year We Fell Down
The sport she loves is out of reach. The boy she loves has someone else.
Corey was supposed to start college as a member of the women’s ice hockey team. Instead, she’ll spend it in a wheelchair. The only upside? Her too-delicious-to-be-real neighbor across the hall.

Book 2: The Year We Hid Away
She’s hiding something big. He’s hiding someone small.

Dorm rooms are supposed to be for sleeping, studying, and partying. Not for hiding your eight-year-old sister.

Novella: Blonde Date
A blind date. A nervous sorority girl. A mean-spirited fraternity prank. What could go wrong?

Book 3: The Understatement of the Year
What happened in high school stayed in high school. Until now.

Michael Graham will never tell anyone the truth about himself. Too bad his past walks right into the locker room on the first day of hockey practice.

Book 4: The Shameless Hour
For Bella, the sweet-talking, free-loving, hip-checking student manager of the Harkness men’s hockey team, sex is a second language. She’s used to being fluent where others stutter, and the things people say behind her back don’t (often) bother her. So she can’t understand why her smoking hot downstairs neighbor has so much trouble staying friends after their spontaneous night together. She knows better than to worry about it, but there’s something in those espresso eyes that makes her second guess herself.

Rafe is appalled with himself for losing his virginity in a drunken hookup. His strict Catholic upbringing always emphasized loving thy neighbor—but not with a bottle of wine and a box of condoms. The result is an Ivy League bout of awkwardness. But when Bella is leveled by a little bad luck and a downright sinister fraternity stunt, it’s Rafe who is there to pick up the pieces.

Bella doesn’t want Rafe’s help, and she’s through with men. Too bad the undeniable spark that crackles between the two of them just can’t be extinguished.

My Review:

I hadn’t planned on reviewing the entire series as once but I fell massively behind in reviews and need so desperately to catch up. Know this: I love every single book in this series, including the novella and these short reviews will not do this entire series justice like I had hoped to do!

The Year We Fell Down: I’m so glad, especially after reading the entire series, that this is the first one. Corey and Hartley have a beautiful friendship that expands into so much more and I enjoyed every single minute of it. But it’s more than that. I enjoyed this book because of Corey’s struggle. She cannot play the sport she loves the most in the world because of an injury she got while playing. And she falls for a boy who can’t play either…but only until he’s healed. And he’s taken too! It’s a lot of heartbreak for her, and it’s painful to watch her go through it and I want to hug her and be her best friend and cheer her on. I loved the first book because it was her story.

The Year We Hid Away: There are so many reasons that I loved this second book and it boils down to Bridger. I love Scarlet and her part in the story and what she does for Bridger and for the romance in the story but it’s Bridger that makes me care from beginning to end. He’s given up so much and taken on so much more in order to keep his sister taken care of and safe. It makes me fall in love with him, easily, because I know what it’s like to sacrifice your own cares and worries and life for the love of a sibling. I root for the two of them to end up together because of him, because from the beginning I want him to succeed and be happy.

The Understatement of the Year: I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this book. I have not had the chance to read a male to male romance novel like this before. Or really ever. And I loved every single bit of it and I need more. Now. Not only does Sarina tell a wonderful romantic story between the two main characters, it really captures the struggle to be gay, both as an out gay person and someone who is hiding. Rikker and Graham struggle but they have a great friendship and eventual relationship, and it’s incredibly sweet and over the top sexy as hell.

The Shameless Hour: I just read this recently because it just came out! And I can honestly say…it’s my favorite. I think it comes down to the fact that I just genuinely love Bella and Rafe so much. I feel a connection to both of them. I love Bella and everything she is. I love that she embraces who she is, but also she struggles with it when it’s blasted all over campus. It’s hard to deal with being a girl, open about her sexuality, when people tend to judge girls about their sex lives. It’s easy to feel familiar when reading Bella’s POV. And I love Rafe because he’s so genuine. He could come across in so many ways but he’s beautiful and charming and kind and I love every little bit of him. Their story is incredibly sweet and I love watching them fall in love.

———–

All in all, I think Sarina creates an incredible series with beautiful romances wrapped around the love of hockey. I’m not a huge hockey fan but I can totally get behind sexy hockey players, both girls and guys, and fun and deep and awesome romantic stories. Everything about it makes me so happy. I wish there were more in this series but I know that these are books that I will definitely revisit them in the future!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

April 25, 2015August 23, 2019Leave a comment

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.

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Book Review: Cinderella’s Dress by Shonna Slayton

April 24, 2015Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, website Historical, there Romance

Pages:

340

Part of a Series?:

The first in a series, viagra 40mg I believe

Release Date:

June 3rd, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Being a teen-ager during World War II is tough. Finding out you’re the next keeper of the real Cinderella’s dress is even tougher.

Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she’s working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds the Cinderella’s dress, life gets complicated.

Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart shipped off to boot camp, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late.

After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.

My Review:

The first time I came across Cinderella’s Dress was at ALA, when I met Shonna. She was so incredibly sweet and published by Entangled, and I absolutely love everything about that publishing company.

I immediately fell in love with the main character of this book. She stands out from page one to the last. She wants to be different but she’s not in your face about it. She’s challenging in such a small way…she doesn’t want to simply be a shop girl, a model. She wants to create beautiful window displays, something that she’s not allowed to do. It’s so simple but I love her determination to make this happen. It’s such a small thing.

What I really love about this book is that it mixes two things I love so much: history and fairy tale. I love historical novels and this takes place in the 40s, during the war. It’s always fun to read about fictional teens in real time periods because you realize how much we’ve had in common over the years, despite the changes to our lifestyles, etc. Even though Kate lives in a totally different time, you connect with her and you care about her and those she cares about.

I also love the fairy tale element. I love the princess stories, all versions of them, from the originals to the Disney versions to the stories that are being created in the books that I read. Cinderella is one of the oldest and well known fairy tales and a story about her dress and the importance of it was addicting from page one to the last page. It’s enchanting and magical. I’m a girl, I love the idea of a princess dress and how a simple night out away from a life you want to escape can change absolutely everything. This book plays on that spirit and that is what makes this book so good. Cinderella’s dress is magic, through out the entire book.

All in all, Shonna writes an incredible novel. The characters, the history, the story of Cinderella and her dress are all written so well and are absolutely beautiful from beginning to end. This is a book that is an absolute must.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars