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Friday, October 31, 2014

Loren Hale's Spooktacular Birthday Celebration + Giveaway

It's a big day today. Not only is it Addicted After All release day, but it's Loren Hale's 24th birthday too! *cheers and claps wildly* 
I may be a tad (to put it lightly) obsessed with the Addicted and Calloway Sisters series by Krista and Becca Ritchie. 
But who isn't? Maybe not to my extreme... but still ;)
After Lily's Birthday Extravaganza back in August, we thought it was only fitting that 
we celebrate the birth of her other half and *cough* my *cough* soulmate, Loren Hale.
Since Lo's birthday falls on Halloween, I've put on my costume and decorated to suit the occasion!
I've invited some fantastic people to join me in wishing Lo a very happy birthday!
We have nachos, wine, chocolate, cake, blow pops, something for everyone. Sit back and relax.
Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the celebration.
Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy the post!!

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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Promo Tour + Giveaway: ADDICTED AFTER ALL by Krista & Becca Ritchie


CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Addicted After All releases in 2 days (plus a few hours)!!!
Lily and Loren are finally getting their happy-ending and I've stocked up on tissue boxes in preparation.
For those who don't know, the Addicted Series by Krista & Becca Ritchie is one of my all-time favorites!!
The name says it all. It's addictive. The story sucks you in and the characters bury their way into your heart.
You can learn a thing or two from the series as well. Like how OTP means 'One True Pairing' or how sexy cornfields can be hehe.

These Addicted Blog Tours are EPIC. I'm so very glad that I get to be a part of one.
Today, I get to share with you the Character Profile of the lovely, bright and wild Daisy Calloway!
Be sure to check out the other blogs on the AAA tour and don't forget to enter the giveaway :)

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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Review: SCORING WILDER by R.S. Grey

Title: Scoring Wilder
Author: R.S. Grey
Standalone
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
+Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Noble |

What started out as a jokeseduce Coach Wildersoon became a goal she had to score.

With Olympic tryouts on the horizon, the last thing nineteen-year-old Kinsley Bryant needs to add to her plate is Liam wilder. He's a professional soccer player, America's favorite bad-boy, and has all the qualities of a skilled panty-dropper.

A face that makes girls week - check.
Abs that can shred Parmesan cheese (the expensive kind) - check.
Enough confidence to shift the earth's gravitational pull - double check.

Not to mention Liam is strictly off limits. Forbidden. Her coaches have made that perfectly clear. (i.e. "Score with Coach Wilder anywhere other than the field and you'll be cut from the team faster than you can count his tattoos.") But that just makes him all the more enticing...Besides, Kinsley's already counted the visible ones, and she is not one to leave a project unfinished.

Kinsley tries to play the game her way as they navigate through forbidden territory, but Liam is determined to teach her a whole new definition for the term "team bonding."

A fun & sexy New Adult Romance (age 17+)
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"She believed she could, so she did."

Scoring Wilder was an amusing and fun read. There just wasn't as much depth to the story and characters as I would've liked. It was incredibly cute though. And I did think that R.S. Grey did a wonderful job writing realistic first-year university students with how they speak and act. Most times, I imagine these stories are set in some alternate universe but for Scoring Wilder, I could definitely see myself bumping into these characters on the street, like they were written as part of my world.  It was probably due to all the movie and celebrity references, which I absolutely loved (that Harry Potter themed hazing was very creative lol)!

Kinsley's dream is to play in the Olympics. A rising soccer-star, she enrolled into her first year of university where she plays first-string for the ULA women's soccer team. She quickly becomes best friends with two of her teammates, Becca and Emily. They made for some hilarious dialogue (especially Becca)! Kinsley was sarcastic and driven. Her inner monologues had me giggling. After having been cheated on by two boyfriends, she wants nothing more than to focus on improving her soccer skills. That is, until Liam Wilder steps in as the assistant coach.

I wasn't a fan of Kinsley's but I was cheering and swooning over Liam like a mad woman (I have a weakness for soccer players). It was instant attraction between the two but both are hesitant to start any sort of relationship besides coach and player. Plus, there's a no fraternizing rule that the head coach made. Liam was charming and funny. And his gigantic sweet tooth was endearing. It didn't take long for them to give in to their attraction though.

"Kinsley: What if there are photographers?
Liam: I'll make sure there aren't any.
Kinsley: Did you just make me an accomplice in their murders?
Liam: My bad. Delete this text."

I really enjoyed their scenes together but I would have loved it had I known why they were so into each other. Yes, they both play soccer. And yes, they both kick-ass at it. But what else? When their relationship was at risk, Kinsley pretty much ran away. To be honest, I wanted her to grovel some more before Liam took her back. Once they were officially together, the sweetness and cheesiness was great and I was back to loving them.

Oh, I musn't forget about Tara, ULA women's soccer team captain. She's the villain of this story. I actually thought she felt threatened by Kinsley in terms of her soccer skills. Tara was always focusing her bullying on Kinsley and her friends. It only got worse when Liam took an interest in Kinsley. Turns out Tara had a thing for Liam but he turned her down. She frustrated and annoyed me to no end.

Overall, if you're just looking for a book that's light with some steam and tons of laugh out loud moments, I'd give this one a shot.

"I'd say I like you more than regular M&Ms, but you're going to have to really step it up 
if you want to beat out peanut M&Ms."

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Becca
She was a fantastic secondary character!
I actually liked her much more than Kinsley.
Funny, loud and outgoing. 
I especially loved that you got to read about her blooming romance with Penn.

Drive-in movie
"I hate not being able to take you on real dates, so I wanted to make it special,"
he admitted, then followed with, "I also just really like candy."
I need a Liam Wilder in my life, period.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Top Ten New Series I Want To Start

This week's topic is to pick our top ten new series we want to start. New within the last year or two.
I've come across so many that have caught my interest.
I really need to find a way to randomly choose which books to read because I'm having the hardest time doing it myself!

- - - Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, where a new topic is given for a top ten list - - -

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine
for sharing upcoming releases we're highly anticipating.

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An Ember In The Ashes
By Sabaa Tahir
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magic, Dystopia, Romance
Release Date: April 28, 2015

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier— and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.


Vow your blood and body to the empire.

Keep your heart for yourself.

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Monday, October 13, 2014

Promo Blitz + Review + Giveaway: MORE THAN FOREVER by Jay McLean


I'm so happy to be a part of the Promo Blitz for More Than Forever by Jay McLean.
My love for the More Than series is endless!
I'm eagerly awaiting for the next book in the series (More Than Enough)
and very excited to find out who the heck it will even be about!
Oh, please let it be Dylan's story! 

Title: More Than Forever
Author: Jay McLean
More Than #4
Publication Date: July 11, 2014
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
+Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo | iBooks |

-LUCY-
There is a love so fierce it cannot be measured.
A heart so strong it will never slow.
There is a promise so sure it can never lie.
He promised me that love forever.
Even when it wasn't enough.

-CAMERON-
Forever. Everlasting. Eternal.
There is no measure of time.
No sounds of the ticking of a clock.
Just the rising and falling of the sun.
And our own sense of forever.

But our forever isn't always.
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"There is a love so fierce it cannot be measured. A heart so strong it will never slow.
There is a promise so sure it can never be broken. And we promise that love forever."

More Than Forever is perfection! Jay McLean continues to wow and amaze me with every book in the More Than series. Not only did she meet my expectations, she went well beyond them and blew me away! From the very beginning, Cam and Lucy stood out from the group to me. They we're always teasing each other but you would get small scenes here and there that really highlighted how deep their love was. To finally get to read this book, their story, I was over the moon. I especially loved how this book took us back in time, even before More Than This (book one) to see how Lucy first caught Cam's eye and how they even became 'Team Luca', one of my top OTPs!

"I thought it was impossible to be able to laugh again. But he did it;
he made my impossible, possible."

Cameron Aladdin Gordon was the most wonderful herothe most amazing boyfriend. He had eyes for no one but Lucy. He was funny, charming and had the biggest heart. He was Lucy's rock, her stability, her strength. But don't start thinking Lucy was weak or anything. She was pretty kick-ass! She was funny and strong, even before she started a relationship with Cam. Lucy made it her job to take care of everyone and because of that, she was quiet and held everything in. In book one, she was introduced as this kind-hearted bookworm that could go crazy (in a hilarious way) when drunk. I was surprised to see the contrast between past and present Lucy but absolutely loved seeing her open up to Cam.

"You know when people ask Lachlan how many brothers and sisters he has; 
he tells them he has one sister and six brothers. He always, always, says Cam's name first."

Family played a huge role in More Than Forever. I especially loved Lucy's brothers. All six of them: Lucas, Leo, Logan, Liam, Lincoln and Lachlan. The reasoning behind why all their names start with an L was so touching too. Every interaction that Cam had with the boys made my heart flutter hard. Not only was he Lucy's hero, he was theirs too. This series has a fantastic group of secondary characters; Mark (Cam's mother's boyfriend) and Minge (Cam's roommate), to name a few in this book. All the scenes with Mark and Cam... let me tell you, SO DARN HEART-WARMING (and so funny at times)!

There were moments that made me laugh so hard and there were moments that made me cry my eyes out. More Than Forever was an emotional, heart-wrenching and breath-taking read! This is the kind of series that I would gladly go through the heart-ache of every single book again and again. I can't get enough of these characters and their stories. I WANT MORE!!

"Love has no limits. No boundaries. No time. It's eternal. Forever."

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I see her wobble on her feet before she slowly tumbles to the ground. Her knees give out first, then the rest of her. It feels like I should've gotten to her earlier, but seconds of panic took place before my mind kicked into gear. And the rest is a blur.

Her friend's standing over us while I rest her head on my lap. "Lucy," I say. And it's the first time I've said her name out loud. It'd been over three weeks since I'd learned it.

"What happened?" Logan asks her friend.

"I don't know." She's as panicked as I am, if not worse.

"Is she dehydrated?" Logan picks up what looks like an uneaten sandwich. "Is this hers? Has she eaten?" I don't know why it annoys me that Logan is asking all the right questions and all I can do is stare down at her. She's breathing, so I guess that's something.

He drops down on his knees on the other side of her and pours water from his bottle into his hand, and then he runs it across her forehead and into her hairline. 

"Is she alright, mate?" Jake asks. He's new and has a weird accent but Logan seems to think he's cool so we keep him around.

Logan does the water thing again, and this time her eyes slowly flutter open.

And I release the breath I was holding.

"It's okay," Logan says to her, "you just passed out."

He's in her face now, and I want to punch him for being the first thing she sees when she comes to. I was here first; I was the one watching her when she fell.

It should have been me.

   

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More Than Forever could be read as a stand-alone but by starting from the beginning,
I think you'd gain a deeper appreciation for the characters' friendship.
Most importantly, you DO NOT want to miss out on Jake Andrews and Logan Matthews!!

More Than This
(Jake & Mikayla)

More Than Her
(Logan & Amanda PART ONE)

More Than Him
(Logan & Amanda PART TWO)

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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Character Spotlight: Faye Goodknight

This is a feature I recently started where I share my favorite characters with you!
Click here for the details. :)

Today's spotlight is on sci-fi geek and sweetheart librarian, Faye Goodknight!
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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Review: ACE'S REDEMPTION by A.C. Bextor

Title: Ace's Redemption
Author: A.C. Bextor
Devil's Despair #1
Publication Date: January 1, 2012
+Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Noble Kobo | iBooks |

Cherry
Memories alone can ruin you. Fear has a paralyzing effect, and love isn't always enough to keep you safe.

Ace was the gateway to freedom I hadn't known since I was fifteen. He offered his protection from the demons that haunted me; both living and dead. Although I knew I wasn't enough to keep him, this didn't deter my hope that one day he'd love me for who I was, not the broken girl he tried so desperately to save. In the end, the ghosts of my past found me. Their malevolence knew no bounds, and I was forced to succumb to their will of darkness. Each threat named against those I loved made any escape impossible; choosing my life for theirs became my desolate absolution.

Inevitably, it was my own weakness and self-doubt that became my undoing.

Ace
Emotional ties are sometimes severed. Friendships down always endure their hardships, and love offered isn't always returned.

I was in love once. For me, leaving her back in Ohio was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. For her, moving on with her life that included her son and the man she loved was no less than she deserved—unconditional happiness. My reasons to bring Cherry home to California were obvious. I needed help with my family, and she needed help staying clean and convincing her parents she was ready to give her son the life he deserved. It was the perfect plan. However, the best laid plans often get lost amidst their best intentions.

Cherry fell in love with me, and in return my love for her acted as the catalyst to her destruction.
*This novel contains material that is not suitable for individuals under the age of 18. Content includes: drug use, explicit language, violence, rape, and other scenarios with content that readers may find offensive. Please use caution when deciding on this book, as every reader has the right to understand the product before purchase.

 Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter |

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**ARC was kindly provided by author A.C. Bextor via The Book Nuts in exchange for an honest review**

"I don't think it's possible to forget, but eventually you'll make other memories
good ones that will outlive the bad ones."

I really, REALLY enjoyed this one!! It wasn't what I was expecting, which was a story centering around a male motorcycle club member (the name Ace just screams 'hot biker' you know?) falling in love with a distraught woman that club saves. I wasn't entirely off the mark though. Ace was a MC member, specifically the Lights of Peril MC. He gave up his cut and returned home to California, to his sister, grandmother and his friends, because he couldn't stand seeing the woman he loved (Sadey) be happy and in love with the club President. Peril was actually where Ace first met Cherry. She was the 'club whore'.

Raegan, aka Cherry, had an extremely rough past. She was caught up in drugs and terrible people. She was forced to give up her baby boy at a young age because of it. Eventually, Cherry became a club whore at Peril for a place to stay and belong. She was intimately acquainted with Ace and was there for him during the times he wallowed over Sadey. From there, they became friends. And as a friend, Ace agreed to take Cherry with him to Cali and help get her life back on track if she helped with his family and stayed clean. 

"I'm your friend, and you can talk to me... even if you want to talk about her."

I loved Ace and Cherry's relationship. Ace was protective of her and cared for her but he couldn't bring himself to love her because of his lingering feelings for Sadey. They were just friends, but he couldn't imagine Cherry being with anyone. The just the thought pissed him off. He was a controlling alpha but he was also very sweet. Then there was Cherry. Words cannot express how much I felt for this girl. She's certainly become one of my favorite heroines! Having gone through what she did, she was still sassy and strong. She didn't let the past define her. The fact that she wanted to get clean for her son was admirable as well. Learning about her unrequited love for Ace made my heart ache. Cherry's the kind of character that you can't help but cheer for.

The secondary characters of Ace's Redemption were wonderful. I loved them all, even man-whore Hayden! Ace's friends were a funny bunch and a part of a band called Devil's Despair. They accepted Cherry into their folds easily, as did Ace's grandmother Bean and little sister Sarah. Cherry hadn't spoken with her parents since dropping off Decklan (her son) with them long ago. You really notice how much love she had to give, so seeing her have a close relationship with Ace's family was heart-warming.   

"You can't always protect those you love from everything, and feeling guilty 
about it doesn't help the circumstance."

I did love that Cherry reconnected with her dad. But most of all, I got all teary-eyed when she was finally face-to-face with her son! I had a feeling Cherry's past would come back to haunt her though. And when it did, I couldn't stop reading. I was on a mission to get to that happy ending!! I felt disgusted and angry learning the details of her horrid history. I wanted those responsible to suffer a painful death. Although, I could understand her actions as a means to protect her loved ones, I wanted to shake her when she tried to 'escape' the way she did. I cried a good amount during the last 30% of the book, let me tell ya.

The only reason I docked half a star was because there were some time jumps. I would have loved to have witnessed Ace and Cherry's romantic relationship develop the first few months after they finally got together. Overall, Ace's Redemption was an intense and incredible read! Great romance and character dynamics. Ace and Cherry first appeared in the Lights of Peril series but I thought, having not read that series myself, A.C. Bextor did a spectacular job in 'introducing' them and their complicated relationship quickly. I will probably end up reading Lights of Peril anyway though haa. I can't wait for the next book in the Devil's Despair series! :D

"No more escapes. You never need an escape again and most certainly never from me."

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Bean
The wise and loving grandma. 
She refers to texting as "sending words" (how adorable right? heh).
She didn't have much dialogue but when she did, you shut up and listen.
I loved when she gave Ace the 'you're worth it' speech.

I'm right here
"I'll give you anything as long as you don't go anywhere without me. I miss you, Rae."
Every time Ace called Cherry by her real name my heart got all warm.
This scene made me teary-eyed! He was laying out his feelings without actually saying I love you.
And to me, it was just as meaningful, if not more, given their history. 


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine
for sharing upcoming releases we're highly anticipating.

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Becoming Calder & Finding Eden
By Mia Sheridan
Release Date: October 5, 2014

There is a place in modern day America with no electricity, no plumbing, and no modern conveniences. In this place, there is no room for dreams, no space for self-expression, and no tolerance for ambition.

In this place, there is a boy with the body of a God and the heart of a warrior. He is strong and faithful and serves his family honorably. But he dares to dream of more.

In this place, there is a girl with the face of an angel and a heart full of courage. To her family, she is the vision of obedient perfection. But she dares to want that which she has been told can never be hers. 

Becoming Calder is the story of good versus evil, fear versus bravery, and the truth that the light of love has always found its way into even the darkest of places... From the beginning of time, to the end of the world.

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