Book Review: Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015Leave a comment

Genre:

New Adult, help Contemporary, this site Romance

Pages:

276 pages

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

July 28th, 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

iBooks

Sarina’s Website / Elle’s Website

GoodReads Summary:

Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wise-cracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were eighteen? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

Ryan Wesley’s biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he’ll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever.

Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions—can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? When Wesley turns up to coach alongside Jamie for one more hot summer at camp, Jamie has a few things to discover about his old friend…and a big one to learn about himself.

My Review:

Warning: The following review is based on a book that features a male on male relationship. Yes, this book is sexy and awesome but if you are uncomfortable with this, please click away now. And probably never come back.

I just read this book a few days ago and I am in love love love love love with it. The first time I ever read a male on male relationship was in Sarina Bowen’s The Understatement of the Year and I knew that I was totally hooked on books like this. I adore both of these authors so so so much and I’ve been pushing them on pretty much every single person I know and I was ECSTATIC when I learned they were writing a hockey book about two guys falling in love, and they were writing it TOGETHER.

Rewind to a few nights ago when this book was released. I had preordered it in order to get it around 9 pm so I could stay up all night and finish it. That was the plan. Then I had some last minute things go through on my debit card and I didn’t have enough money for the preorder to go through. I was so SAD. Luckily, a good friend of mine sent me an Amazon gift card and I was able to buy it. Saved by Chris! You rock, Chris. I’m just saying.

I stayed up all night to read it and I just…I love everything about this book. I love that it had two beautiful hockey boys. I love the romance and the friendship between those two characters. I love that you can hear both Sarina and Elle’s voices in the book but they write so beautifully together and its just perfect. I love that they teach younger kids about hockey, the way they learned it as kids. I love the sex scenes because holy moly, grab me a cold washcloth, those things were steamy as hell! But what I loved the most about this book was the character of Jamie.

There are not enough bisexual characters in YA and NA and as someone who is bisexual and struggles to keep her anger in check at the completely misunderstanding of what that means…it means a lot to have a character like Jamie in the book. While I definitely adore Wes to no end, I think the person I fell in love with the most was Jamie. Jamie struggles to figure out who he is. He likes girls but he loves Wes too, and its a hard thing to go through. Its confusing as hell but I love how fearless he can be and I love that he feels this attraction and he has these feelings for his best friend and he just goes for it. I LOVE Jamie Canning so much. I wish he was a real person that I could just hug and love and be friends with because Elle and Sarina created a great character in him. He’s real and genuine and familiar and I connected with him from beginning to end.

But just like both of these authors tend to do…they made me laugh and cry and they made me want a cold shower STAT and they just wrote an incredibly GREAT romance novel about two people trying to figure shit out and finding each other in the process. I can’t speak highly enough of Elle and Sarina and their books and I love that they wrote a book together and I loved every minute of the book they wrote together. Brava, ladies, please do it again sometime soon!

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

July Book Wrap Up!

August 2, 2015Leave a comment

Books Pledged to Read in 2015:

150

Am I On Track:

8 books behind. Not even stressed at all.

Books Read So Far:

Total Books For July:

Dream of You Novella

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Re-Read)

Rome

Nash

Rowdy

Forever With You (ARC)

Asa

Penguins with People Problems

Upside Down

Him

* * * * * *

Favorite Book of the Month:

Forever with You by Jennifer L Armentrout

This book just blew my mind. It was a story very close to my heart as well so…yeah, what is ed it just meant a lot. And JLA just gets better with every book.

Least Favorite Book of the Month:

Upside Down by Lia Riley

I definitely didn’t hate this book but I wasn’t massively in love with it either.

Books I Want to Read Next Month:

With This Heart by R.S. Grey

The Rose Society by Marie Lu

The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi

Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda

Just One Song by Stacey Lynn

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Jubilee Manor by Bethany Hagen

Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines

Full Re-Read of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

* * * * *

June Book Wrap Up!

July 1, 2015July 9, 2015Leave a comment

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:

Total Books For June:

The Perfect Game

Rule

Scorched

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

One Week Girlfriend

The Fill-In Boyfriend

Signs Point to Yes (ARC)

Tonight the Streets Are Ours (ARC)

Jet

*****

SO MUCH NA!

LOL

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

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