Embrace (book 2) & Entangled (book 2.5) by S.E. Hall

My husband doesn't read my blog so I can say this and not worry about it coming back to bite me in the ass.

I'm not perfect.

So in one of my not-so-perfect moments, I did something I warn others against all the time; I judged books by their covers. More specifically, this entire series. The covers screamed YA to me. And well, I just don't read that genre.

Now - I've included the covers in the post so you know exactly what you should be one-clicking. 

And then I actually read the book. Not YA at all.

Emerge (book 1) starts off when the characters are younger, but I'd say 98% of the story takes place in college. And all 3 books have, uh, scenes, that are not YA in the least. Actually, they are the opposite of YA.

So in hopes of getting more people to read this series, I promise the following:

1. These books are not YA
2. These books are laced with funny dialogue
3. These books have Evan and Dane. Both who have MASSIVE book-boyfriend potential....shit - forget potential, I'm a devoted fan of Team Dane
4. Now this is the last thing, and it might be considered a bit scandalous. Your significant other will also appreciate this book *wink wink, nudge nudge*.

Still don't believe me? OK - here are legitimate Facebook conversations. Sure it's only 3, but I can attest that Maria is VERY picky :) I've tried to remove the spoilers!

 

COVER REVEAL Mended by Kim Karr

Title: Mended (Connections #3)

Release date: June 3, 2014

MENDED SYNOPSIS:

MUSIC HAS THE POWER TO HEAL ALL…BUT NOT ALL BROKEN HEARTS CAN BE MENDED.

Always in control, Xander Wilde considered life on the road to be a perfect fit for him. But when disaster strikes on the Wilde Ones’ latest tour, fate intervenes…and a newly single Ivy Taylor, the only girl he has ever loved, steps back into his life.

After moving past her painful breakup with Xander years ago, Ivy was poised to become the next big name in pop music…when suddenly she withdrew from the limelight—the same day she announced her engagement to her controlling agent, Damon Wolf.

Xander knows he should keep his distance. But once they’re on the road, he can’t resist pursuing her for a second chance. Yet a jealous Damon can’t let her go—and he’s keeping dangerous secrets that could destroy them all.  

When the three of them come together, everything falls apart. But if Xander and Ivy can hold tight to the bond that connects them, they just might have a chance at reclaiming the powerful love they thought they had lost forever....

MENDED EXCERPT - http://www.authorkimkarr.com/mended.html

MENDED BOOK TRAILER - 

You tube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJPlEw_vqY

Vimeo- https://vimeo.com/78876133 

GOODREADS LINK - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17413362-mended

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Karr

Website: http://www.authorkimkarr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKimKarr

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorkimkarr

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6644044.Kim_Karr

Emerge by S.E. Hall (Book 1 - Evolve Series)

I have a major soft-spot for books with this kind of story-line. I inhale them. I neglect everything that would otherwise make me a good mom. Emerge was absolutely no exception.

I held my breath too often with this story. Got lightheaded more time than I can remember, or am willing to admit. There's a list of reasons I liked this story. I mean really linked this story. But I'll leave you with just one - DANE.

Shortest review ever, but the second book is calling my name.

Night Owl by M. Pierce

I shit you not, I one-clicked this because of one word in the title. I have a thing for owls.

From the very first sentence, I loved the writing style. Very much to the point. It felt like the author was cutting through all the bull-shit. I quickly realized that this book was intense. No doubt comparisons will be made to others in this genre. If that's what gets you to read this book, then so be it. But make up your own mind and love (or hate) this book for what it is.

Laurence is the perfect wing man. Every man needs a Laurence.

Little Bird was so much stronger than I thought her character would be when I started reading this book. Not a martyr, but a realist. She chooses to act in ways that some might compare to a doormat, but life isn't perfect, and you try to make the best of really crappy situations

Night Owl is a grade-A asshole with very few redeeming qualities (the few he does have include the car/lawn scene). 

Until he's not and your heart is destroyed for him. And not like a crumpled piece of paper. Mine felt like it had been put through the shredder, taken out and cut up with scissors, and then burned in a fire pit. And in case my recovery for even a moment gave me hope, it was pushed off a cliff with the final words. At this point, I'm still trying to figure out if I flew off the edge with a parachute.

I live for broken characters who manage to redeem themselves. Their path to salvation isn't always pretty but the end result restores some of my faith in the human character every.single.time. Even if they are fictional.

I was addicted to this book. I'm still reeling from it.

God this was so vague...

Welcome to Sugartown by Carmen Jenner

My parents are both trained pastry chefs. So I should know how to bake a pie. But I can’t even boil water without looking up instructions (true story). After this story, I’m so tempted to become Betty freaking Crocker if it meant that Elijah Cade would eat my pie.

Oh - you’ve read this story? You want to bake pies for Elijah as well? I DON’T SHARE!

I really Really REALLY liked this story. It started out innocent enough. Ana lives in Sugartown with her family and runs the pie shop, right across from her dad’s garage. It’s a very small town, with all the fixings you’d expect to go along with it; the pretty boys that are douches, the gossips that encourage defamation, and no real way out.

And in rides Elijah. Because he shows up on a bike, is gorgeous, and tattooed to the high heavens, you know there’s a story, and you better believe it will be a good one. That is, if he ever lets anyone close enough to discover it.

Him and Ana together are hot. If you read the synopsis, you know she's, uh, innocent. And, well, he’s ridden his bike around the block more than a few times. But it still works for them. As their relationship progresses, you slowly learn a bit more of Ana and Elijah as individuals. You being to hope that our boy gets his head out of his arse quickly enough before it starts to diminish hope of an HEA.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Up until this point, I was so taken in by the witty banter; the lightheartedness of it all. And then, all goes to shit in the story.

Some people like some warning that crap is about to go down. I couldn't care less. As long as I like the story before and after the pivotal moment, the main characters can turn into kangaroos for all I care (HA! — Because I read this books while practising my Aussie accent, I just had to).

I’ll try not to give anything away during the rest of this review, so I beg for your forgiveness for making all this very vague.

Elijah has one hell of a past. And it literally catches up to him. Like any hot-as-f***, brooding, complicated man, he chose not to share that part of himself with Ana. And to say that she’s confronted by it in a horrific manner is really an understatement.

Persistence seems to be a theme after this point, but things aren’t looking for great. I’m praying that this is not one of those WTF cliffhanger books. I mean, I can handle those once in a while, and yesterday was not the day. Then our Elijah does something dumb. I mean really dumb. At this point, I was taking my glass of chocolate milk, raising it in the air, and drinking for Australia (it will all make sense!). I don’t drink, but I was praying to the chocolate-gods to give me strength to get past this point.

Ana and I chose different paths when it came to dealing with Elijah’s dummery (give me a break — sometimes words need to be made up). Sure this was added to a list of flaws, but when you choose not to lay claim, you can’t bitch about it either.

Then the author went somewhere I didn’t think she would. And it broke my heart. It actually had me taking a breather, because long gone were the days of laughing and blissful sighing. The events after ward were fully warranted, but it only broke me further.

Through all this, I have to admit that I fell in love with Holly (the best friend), Bob (Ana’s dad), Jackson (Ana’s cousin), and Sam (Ana’s brother) more than I ever though I would. They got me through parts of the book where I wasn’t sure anyone could shine a bit of sunshine on.

THEN MY BATTERY DIED ON MY EREADER AS THEY WERE SHARING M&Ms! Panic rocketed through me. This is not how it was going to end! At 11:45pm EST, I was tearing through the house looking for an extra charger.

With 3% battery, I finished the story of Elijah and Ana. I don’t rate books by stars. I rate them on whether I think they are worthy of physical space on my bookshelf.

I will allocate 4 spaces to Welcome to Sugar Town - 1 paperback for me, 1 to lend out, 1 as a back up, and 1 in the event I ever meet Carmen Jenner and grow a pair to ask for a signature.

Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker

Received an ARC. Giving an honest opinion.

You know the moment when you start reading a book, and you immediately acknowledge that the remaining 99.9% is going to be really good, and leave you hungover like someone who started celebrating St. Patrick's Day at 9am? Yeah...that was me at 8pm Sunday night. Monday morning was rough and I wish I hadn't given up coffee because the lack of sleep caused by this book was plain nuts!

If you've read K.A. Tucker's previous books (Ten Tiny Breaths or Only Tiny Lie), you'll know who Cain is. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, you can remedy that by reading the aforementioned books. But all is not lost my dear book fiend. Because unlike some series' where all the characters are tried together and you need to know all the minuet details, this book can serve as a stand-alone.

So the basics.

Cain owns a strip club. Charlie is a dancer. Cain doesn't sleep with his staff. Charlie needs money. Charlie and Cain have an undeniable connection. Charlie doesn't really exist.

More often than not, I imagine myself in the story. I think about what it would be like to be one of the characters. Not necessarily the main one(s), but just in the background so I can observe like a diligent fly on the wall.

It really helps when the main object of my affection is portrayed in a way that I'd be willing to eat ice-cream off his body. And a he's decent guy to boot. And tall. And hot. Ice-cream can cool you down...unless you're eating it off his body. S*** - where was I going with this? No really...I absolutely just lost my train of thought. And now I'm staring at the cover, thinking how beautiful he looks from the back.

In the case of Four Seconds to Lose, I wanted to work in a strip club (please note my carefully chosen words here since this will end up on the world wide web, and the last thing I need is in 15 years for my son to read that I wanted to be a stripper. Though to each their own). I would gladly buy the highest heels, wear the shortest skirts, and discover what Victoria's secret actually is if it meant that Cain would be my boss.

One of the things that really stood out for me was how authentically male Cain's POV was. I mean this with wholehearted respect, but at times I had to keep reminding myself that these scenes were not written by a man. I really didn't comprehend the magnitude of this feat until Ben started showing up in more scenes. He was the perfect tormentor, and though I immediately sensed that this was more of a 'no harm no foul' type of banter, it really provided insight to what drives guys insane without an ounce of a female bullshit that can sometimes sneak in from the sidelines and make the guys look like delicate flowers.

All the characters that I love made appearances in this story, but it was never about them. Things happened to Cain and Charlie that forced me to suspend my idea of the perfect reality and embrace the craziness that was their lives. But I fell for this book so hard that their insanity was my Valium.

I really liked Ten Tiny Breaths. I wanted to marry One Tiny Lie. But Four Seconds to Lose? I would have it's freaking babies.

Nocturne by Andrea Randall & Charles Sheehan-Miles

mother
of
all
things
that
are
holy
!

Right from the audition, I was smiling like an idiot, actually saying out loud that, Hey! I played the flute! Yeah, about one page in, and I was a complete goner.

Three years later, and the chemistry between the two main characters would be obvious to a blind man in space. Yet it's not an instant 'hook-up' for the characters. They antagonize each other like their next breaths depended on it. They have moments of unguarded honesty. While I'm screaming at my iPad 'f***ing kiss her already', the raw sexual tension goes from a slow simmer to a clusterf*** of all hotness at the perfect pace.

Once these two crazy kids finally acknowledge what others have noticed for quite some time, it's not long before the cracks begin to appear. You see, their love is messy, riddled with obstacles. Yet even with all the forewarning, you still hope that they pull their heads out of their asses.

And then all hell breaks loose. In what I can say is one of the hottest, most desperate moments in the book, turns into the knife that gutted me. I know that there are faults with the characters. Hell, they aren't even close to perfect. But it's very hard to blame  two pathetic souls that are falling apart. So I'll blame James. Yes - everything that happened after was James' fault.

It's James' fault that I stopped breathing five years later. It's his fault that I went to bed at 4am EST when I had to get up at 6. If it wasn't for him and what he said to his friend, it would have been all ladybugs and lollipops! I would have been fine to put the book down, and finish it the next night. BUT NO!

Ok...I truly understand that it's not all James' fault. The other guy had a messed up sense of what he wanted for his life. Back when all hell broke loose, James found a kink in the armour that had been there already, and used it to do something he thought was helping his friend. The other guy should have grown a pair and manned-up!

But he didn't. He did the stupidest thing he could with quite possibly the stupidest women ever. I know this sounds harsh, but if you KNOW it's not you, you don't go through with it! Yeah, he took your life, but sweetheart, you gave it to him on a pretty silver platter knowing fully well that what was going on wasn't real.

AND THEN, like the other guy hasn't been an a**hole enough already, he asks the love of his life the most selfish thing possible. It works for a while...like a Bandaid for a shotgun wound in the head! And just when you think he couldn't be any more of a dick, he tops himself. And when the love of his life realizes her worth, I started bawling an ugly stream of tears. Reading it and 'watching it' play out with such unfathomable brutality was nothing short of  astonishing. I couldn't believe that it was happening AGAIN! that I was being left for the dead AGAIN!

I'm not a poet, and I'm pretty sure that these are some famous words that won some acclaim many years ago, but I would die a thousand literary deaths if I could read this story for the first time again and experience everything that was Nocturne.

Link to buy --> http://amzn.to/185cY12http://amzn.to/185cY12