Book Review: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

July 15, 2015July 22, 2015Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, cialis 40mg Contemporary, price Romance

Pages:

352 pages

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

May 5th, 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

When Gia Montgomery’s boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she’d been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it’s not the real Bradley she’s thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn’t even know. But tracking him down doesn’t mean they’re done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend’s graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

My Review:

I did it guys. I finally read a Kasie West book! And I adore Kasie! I’ve met her twice in real life, and once was at the Ontario TBF and apparently that was enough for her to remember me at RT Convention in TEXAS and she is just the sweetest. Plus she said I looked like I was still in high school and I’m a sucker for compliments. I swear that has nothing to do with this review. I don’t give good reviews based on compliments. I mean, they help. Duh. ;)

Anyway…

I adore this book! Its so cute, I can’t handle it. I’ve been in the need for a lighthearted book where the main character isn’t broken. I needed a break from new adult and I saw Kasie’s book on the shelf and I thought…how have I not read any of her books yet. I immediately bought and read it and I just loved it. Its seriously so fun. Gia lies to her friends, tells them that this beautiful boy that she basically found in the parking lot is her boyfriend Bradley and then she stages a dramatic break up and then she actually falls for the guy and come on, hilarity and hijinks are going to ensue. Because when you lie that much, its just bound to come and bite you in the ass and I kind of flew through the pages because I just had to know how it ended. It reminded me a bit of Katie Finn’s Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend and how lying, especially to those you care about, can seriously blow up in your face.

And that’s also what makes it such a great book. Gia has to stop and think, wait, why am I lying? Why do I feel the need to lie? And that opens up a whole can of worms and while this book is fun and romantic and watching the romance between Gia and Fill-In Boyfriend build up is just so awesome, I love that the book really focuses on Gia’s struggle to figure out who the hell she is. And that’s hard! She struggles with who she is, who her friends want her to be, who her parents want her to be, who she expects to be and who she really actually wants to be and those are all incredibly confusing. And it sucks that it takes lying to her friends for her to figure it out but this book is so much about her growing up and I absolutely love that.

Bottom line, I was massively impressed with the first book I read by Kasie. She is able to both write a fun and light romance novel that also touches on genuinely real things that happen to teenagers. Its a hard balance but she does it so well and I absolutely enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Plus now I have a massive crush on Fill-In Boyfriend (you’ll figure out his name in the book!) and really, Kasie, did I truly need another book boyfriend?

Of course, I did.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Rule by Jay Crownover

July 11, 2015July 11, 20152 Comments

Genre:

New Adult, tadalafil Contemporary, for sale Romance

Pages:

327 pages

Part of a Series?:

The first novel in the Marked Men Series

Release Date:

December 30th, this site 2012

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Opposites in every way . . . except the one that matters

Shaw Landon loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule is everything a straight-A pre-med student like Shaw shouldn’t want—and the only person she’s never tried to please. She isn’t afraid of his scary piercings and tattoos or his wild attitude. Though she knows that Rule is wrong for her, her heart just won’t listen.

To a rebel like Rule Archer, Shaw Landon is a stuck-up, perfect princess-and his dead twin brother’s girl. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. He doesn’t have time for a good girl like Shaw-even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is.

But a short skirt, too many birthday cocktails, and spilled secrets lead to a night neither can forget. Now, Shaw and Rule have to figure out how a girl like her and a guy like him are supposed to be together without destroying their love . . . or each other.

My Review:

I’m going to admit it. This book was incredibly hard for me to get into. I’m not sure if it was because my friends had built it up so much for me so I had a hard time being like “OMG YES” or what. But it took me a long time to get into this book.

I like the story and I like the premise. I like the characters a lot. I think the biggest problem that I had with each of them was how incredibly broken both of them are. I like my characters broken, for sure, because you need character development and you need them to get better, and fix each other, especially in a romance but there were times when I just wanted to punch both of them in the face because they were just TOO broken for me. I think I like my characters a little less broken haha. I’m not really sure what I mean by that but I guess it was just maybe too dramatic for me.

That being said, I did like the romance between the two main characters, despite the drama outside of that with both of their families. I liked that there was this give and take, this back and forth. You kind of want to scream at them because they’re so different and on paper, they make absolutely no sense whatsoever but they’re so perfect at the same time and they see it but they sabotage it. Its a fantastically written romance. That is something that Jay just rocks at. She creates this incredibly sexy characters, characters that you really do love and she creates this heartbreaking romance between the two and you just want to scream, I SHIP IT and MAKE IT WORK ALREADY. Literally. That’s how I feel.

And those sex scenes? Holy. Crap. Someone fetch me a bucket of cold water because a mere splash on my face is just not going to be enough for me at all. She creates these just incredible scenes. Now that I’m writing my own new adult romance, I know exactly who to go to for inspiration for sex scenes. Seriously. My. God.

Plus tattoos. Oh god tattoos. Nothing sexier than a tattooed one. She really won me over with that. And piercings! I never thought I’d be into that but yes. Definitely yes.

So in the end, I definitely liked this book. I didn’t totally love it but I did like it. It didn’t make me rush out to read the other books which is hilarious because I actually ended up loving the second book, Jet, so much. But anyway. Great story and romance and all that but a little too dramatic for my tastes. Check out my review for Jet to see more ;) Plus I’m currently reading book 3, Rome!

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: Be With Me by J Lynn

July 10, 2015July 10, 2015Leave a comment

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

July 9, 2015Leave a comment

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

The Awakened Has Officially Been Submitted to Swoon Reads!

June 27, 2015June 27, 2015Leave a comment

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!

Dear Jennifer L Armentrout and All Of You: My Reaction to Scorched

June 17, 2015April 10, 20203 Comments

I was originally going to send this directly to JLA. But then I realized how much that I wanted to share this with everyone. I’ve kept a lot of this stuff secret for awhile now and I’m ready for it to not be a secret. The main character of JLA’s new release Scorched really inspired me to be more open about myself and so that’s what I’m doing. I also want to warn you that there will be mild spoilers for Scorched in this letter. Thank you.

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