With his tight leather pants and a sharp edge that makes him dangerous, Jet Keller is every girl’s rock and roll fantasy. But Ayden Cross is done walking on the wild side with bad boys. She doesn’t want to give in to the heat she sees in Jet’s dark, haunted eyes. She’s afraid of getting burned from the sparks of their spontaneous combustion, even as his touch sets her on fire.
Category: Reviews
Book Review: One Week Girlfriend by Monica Murphy
Temporary. That one single word best describes my life these last few years. I’m working at a temporary job until I can finally break free. I’m my little brother’s temporary mother since our mom doesn’t give a crap about either of us. And I’m that temporary girl all the guys want to get with because I give it up so easily. According to the rumors, at least.
Book Review: Be With Me by J Lynn
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 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
Genre:
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 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
Blog Tour: Cora Carmack and All Played Out – Review, Excerpt and Giveaway!
Hello everyone! I am SO excited to be a part of this blog tour. I adore this series, approved I adore Cora and I want you ALL to fall in love with this series and Cora and all the beautiful fictional boys she has created for us.
There is SO much awesome with this, so I want to make sure I cover it all. We’re going to meet Cora, learn about the book (with an excerpt), have a spoiler free review courtesy of moi and then GIVEAWAY! That’s the best part right? I thought so too. Let’s jump into this!
Meet Cora Carmack!
Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She’s done a multitude of things in her life– boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.
You Can Find Her At:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / GoodReads
About All Played Out
Pre-Order All Played Out at your local bookstore or the following links!
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository/ iTunes
Don’t forget to read books 1 and 2: All Lined Up and All Broke Down!
ALL LINED UP, Book 1
Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iTunes
ALL BROKE DOWN, Book 2
Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iTunes
And check out the fourth book in the series, All Closed Off, on GoodReads now!
The Excerpt
The door opens, and my stomach dips at the sight of Nell’s bleary eyes and rumpled hair. She squints at me, and then winces at the sunlight, instinctively taking a step back into the house.
I step in after her without waiting for an invitation, and shut the door firmly behind me.
“I brought coffee,” I say, lifting the tray up into her line of sight.
“Shhh!” She holds one hand up to me and the other to her forehead.
“I think,” she says, her voice raspy, “there’s a herd of elephants in my head.”
“Welcome to the world of hangovers, sweetheart.”
She blinks at me, then says matter-of-factly, “I’m going back to bed.”
She shuffles down the hallway, and I follow her, still holding the coffee carrier and resisting the urge to laugh. Then she swings her bedroom door wide, and doesn’t bother to close it before tumbling headlong into her bed. Again, I take that as permission, closing the door in case Dylan comes home unexpectedly.
Before Nell can slip back into sleep, I force the coffee into her hand.
“Drink a little of this,” I tell her. “It’ll help clear up the headache and nausea.” She doesn’t look like she believes me, but she takes a sip anyway. “Aspirin will help, too, if you have some.”
“Bathroom,” she says, and I go out to the hallway bathroom. I find a bottle in the second cabinet I open.
When I return to her room, she asks, “You find it?”
“I did. Right next to your box of tampons. The things I endure for you, woman.” She rolls her eyes and takes the aspirin, and she drinks about half the coffee before placing the cup on the nightstand and sinking back against her pillows. She must be feeling better because she finally asks the question I’d expected to hear the second she opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
I shrug, toe off my sneakers, and throw myself down on the covers on the other side of her bed. She groans when the mattress bounces, but other than that doesn’t complain.
“I knew you’d be miserable this morning …”
“And you decided that was something you needed to see?”
“I decided I could be of some help. I’ve had more than my fair share of hangovers. When that coffee kicks in all the way, we’ll get you showered and dressed, and then we’ll go out for some greasy breakfast. You’ll be good as new in no time.”
“You’ve done this more than once? Are you crazy? I never want to drink again.”
“Everybody says that. If you don’t, you’re not doing it right.”
“I don’t feel like I did anything right.”
“You checked another thing off your list, didn’t you?”
She throws an arm over her eyes in lieu of an answer, and after a minute or so of silence, she asks, “Why are you really here?”
“I told you, I—”
“If you feel sorry for me because of what happened last night or what I said, don’t. Please. I’d really rather you just leave.”
“I can’t do that. Sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because last time I let you get away from me, you called some giant ginger-bearded monster to get you drunk, and look how well that turned out. Face it. You need me.”
She makes a groan that sounds vaguely laughlike. “Matt is not a monster.”
“We’ll agree to disagree.”
She sighs, and rolls on her side to face me. I suck in a breath because even hungover, she’s beautiful. And that fiery, challenging look in her eyes always goes straight to my cock.
“And if I had wanted to call you?” she asks. “I don’t have your number.”
“You could have just thought of me. I would have known and come running. I’m practically a superhero in that regard.”
“Riiight.”
“Why so disbelieving? Unless you thought of me, and it didn’t work? Were you thinking of me last night, girl genius?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“I thought about you. Even during the game last night when I should have been concentrating on not getting my ass kicked, you kept popping up. I think I might be addicted to you, Antonella De Luca.”
“How do you know my full name?”
“I might have done a little snooping last night while you were out of it. So you were valedictorian in high school, huh?”
“Just how much snooping did you do?”
“Relax. Your list is safe. I promised I wouldn’t read it, and I didn’t.” My eyes drop to her lips, which she keeps pressing together in what I assume is nervousness. “It was tempting, though.”
All of her is tempting, and I should probably get out of this bed right now before I drag her beneath me and remind myself just what her skin tastes like.
Regretfully, I pull myself up to a sitting position and say, “All right, sweetheart. Go shower so we can get breakfast. Unless you need assistance, then I’d be happy to—”
She cuts me off. “No. No, I think I can handle that alone.”
“Pity,” I say. “Well, I’ll be here waiting in your bed in case you change your mind.”
She stands up and faces me, still all cute and rumpled from sleep. “You are so …” She trails off, and shakes her head, turning for the door instead.
As she heads for the bathroom, I call out, “I’m so what? Charming? Devastatingly handsome?”
“You so better be in the living room by the time I’m done with my shower.”
Damn. I’d been looking forward to seeing her in a towel.
Next time.
The Review:
Please be aware while there will be no spoilers for this novel in the review, I can’t guarantee there will not be spoilers for All Lined Up and All Broke Down. Please click those titles to read the reviews!
I was so excited to get an advanced copy of this. I read the first two and loved the first two. I think Carson will always be the love of my life. Always. Sigh. But yes, I was very excited to get an early copy and to be a part of this awesome blog tour. Falling in love with two new characters, in a universe you already know you love…its the best. It really is.
First off, I gotta say. I love both characters. I love the diversity of both of them, I love the determination of both of them, and the ambition of both of them. They’re so different, and you’re really thinking, come on, how do these two even end up in the same universe but they do. Because while Nell and Torres might not have a massive amount of things in common, they have chemistry and they’re both determined on their own path for different reasons. They both put an insane amount of pressure on themselves and honestly, they need to let up. And that’s where the other person comes in.
Torres teaches Nell to have fun, let loose and Nell teaches Torres not to hide behind all his fun. They really work so well together and I’m rooting for them from the beginning. What I love is that they’re both so blunt, so they kind of square off so many times. Torres is completely blunt about what he wants and when he wants it and Nell is just…she doesn’t hold back. She says the first thing that’s on her mind and more than one time, I burst out laughing because of what she said and how it just totally works. I can see why someone would fall in love with that; its insanely refreshing.
I also love the way they’re brought together, this idea that Nell has spent her entire life focused on being the good girl, getting the grades, going to college and all of that. She really realizes, I haven’t had any experiences and so she starts to make a list of things to do, a sort of college bucket list. And the list is fabulous and when Torres discovers it, it just is even better because he’s determined to help her check off every single one. The adventures they have in doing that together and how it brings them together: that’s what makes this book so damn good. It starts off as a legitimate friendship, with its ups and downs, but it takes its time and then hits the two of them like a cannon blast and as a reader, it was awesome.
Lastly, Cora just writes GREAT romance. She makes it so real and so damn sexy (seriously, keep cool water close by at all times when reading this book) but she doesn’t shove it in your face so much that you’re like, okay, we get it, they’re in love and they have sex, I’m bored. She creates a story, a character story, and you care about them more than just a couple and that’s what makes her romances SO good. You want them to fall in love and you want all their problems to go away and you want everything to work out. And you want more and more steamy scenes for sure though because holy moly, Cora knows how to write them!
All I gotta say is this: another winner in this series for Cora. Sports, hot boys and badass heroines and now she’s announced she has a fourth one on the way, sometime next year. Cora, you have me sold. I’m hooked!
The Giveaway!
A signed Rusk University Set for one lucky winner! Follow THIS link to enter now!
Follow the Rest of the Blog Tour :)
You can see all the lovely awesome blogs that are participating on this tour, and see what they have to say about it by clicking this link. I’m in pretty good company!
Book Review: What We Saw (ARC) by Aaron Hartzler
This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through Edelweiss at the permission of Harper Teen. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.
Genre:
Young Adult, and Contemporary
Pages:
336 pages
Part of a Series?:
Standalone Novel
Release Date:
September 22nd, 2015
You Can Find the Book At:
GoodReads Summary:
Kate Weston can piece together most of the bash at John Doone’s house: shots with Stacey Stallard, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early—the feeling that maybe he’s becoming more than just the guy she’s known since they were kids.
But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills’s shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn’t have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate’s classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can’t be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same question: Where was Ben when a terrible crime was committed?
This story—inspired by real events—from debut novelist Aaron Hartzler takes an unflinching look at silence as a form of complicity. It’s a book about the high stakes of speaking up, and the razor thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time.
My Review:
I knew immediately that this was a book I needed to read. It sounded amazing for one thing, and I absolutely adore Aaron and his writing and his writing style. I knew that it would be good. I just didn’t know how good it was going to be.
This book completely blew my mind. As soon as I had downloaded it onto my Nook, I couldn’t stop reading. It was like a train wreck, you couldn’t look away. When it came down to it, I think the realism of this story, the fact that this is based on a true story and based on real events that happen all the time, I think that’s what drew me in and kept me there right away.
Kate is faced with an incredibly difficult obstacle. She was at the same party as Stacey. She was drunk, and yet she made it home and Stacey didn’t. Or so Stacey says. But she’s torn because the guys accused of raping Stacey are basketball royalty, the entire town worships the ground they walk on. There’s no way they did this…and even if they did, Stacey deserved it. She dressed provocatively. She’s from the “wrong” side of town. Its everything we face in the news, on Facebook, everywhere, all the time right now, and watching it through Kate’s eyes was hard to take.
This book was incredibly emotional for me. I felt so many different emotions at once. I felt sick and angry and anxious as hell. Its been awhile since I’ve had such a visceral reaction to a story and I felt this one all over. I cried, I got angry, I felt helpless, even though this is all fictional. But is it? I was so angry because this sort of thing happens and this sort of thinking-that a girl deserves it, that she should have taken care of herself, she shouldn’t dress that way or drink that much-exists all over the place and its WRONG. But because of the rape culture we have…people are confused. And Kate is confused. She’s torn between her feelings for Ben Cody, and for his friends and for the popularity they have.
I think the thing I had the most visceral reaction to was everyone’s thoughts about the boys and Stacey. The way they built up the boys, the way the boys acted like it was a joke, the way they tore apart Stacey…it made me feel awful every single time I read a line. People genuinely think this way! They do, and its just terrible and to read a book about something like this, something that actually really happened…it was hard to stomach.
But I think what makes this book as great as it is is that Aaron provides a beacon of hope about this. Sure, you feel hopeless at times, you realize how close to home this story hits because of how incredibly real it is. But at the same time, you have Kate. And Kate is the light in this story because you see her journey through uncertainty and confusion and determination and finally, resolution. She’s the light, she’s the hope. She’s the good. She gives you the hope that there are so many people out there that know to do the right thing. That’s what makes this book so beautiful. Kate. She’s an incredible character and you follow her through this book, experiencing the same emotions as her, wanting to reach into the pages and hold her hand and tell her its going to be okay, even if you’re unsure its going to be. She’s the beautiful bright spot of the novel and she’s what makes this book SO incredibly good.
This book doesn’t come out til September, and I’ll definitely repost the review closer to release day. I just wanted to share this now because I want to build up talk for this book NOW. It blew my mind. The writing, the characterization, everything…its just amazing. I already was impressed with Aaron from Rapture Practice and now I’m a complete convert. This is a one of a kind novel and I know that we will see more of this incredible talent in the future.
Rating:
5 out of 5 Stars