BOOK BLITZ - EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: You Make Me (Blurred Lines #1) by Erin McCarthy

You Make Me by Erin McCarthy
(Blurred Lines #1)
Publication date: April 21st 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Purchase: Amazon l B&N

Synopsis:

The guy she wants…

Growing up on the coast of Maine with a revolving door of foster siblings, Caitlyn Michaud spent one intense and passionate year falling in love with her foster brother, Heath. Then he left without a word. The betrayal devastated Caitlyn and made her vow to forget the compelling bad boy. But forgetting his sensual touch and their deep all-consuming friendship is easier said than done.

Isn’t the guy she needs…

Determined to move on, in college Caitlyn has risen above her small town impoverished roots and has joined a sorority, reinvented her appearance, and landed the right boyfriend. Pre-law major and frat president, Ethan, is thoughtful and always laughing, and he makes her feel happy, calm. He also gives her the social acceptance she craves.

But the perfect world she tried so hard to attain is ripped apart when Heath appears one night out of nowhere. Caitlyn remembers all the reasons why she loves him, even if they don’t make sense to anyone but her. Out of the military, Heath is as brooding and intense as ever, and he is determined not only to win her back, but to exact revenge on everyone who kept him from her…

And when one love allows her to breathe, but the other feels as essential to her life as air, how does she choose between them?

Prologue

Heath said he would never leave me.

He promised that nothing, no one, would ever come between us.

I was laying on the grass staring up at him, overwhelmed at how much I loved him, and how intensely good it felt to have him sliding inside me, my sundress shoved up around my waist. The ground beneath my back was hard, the grass cool and dewy. My body hot. Tense.

“Cat,” he murmured, his pale blue eyes locked onto me. “I don’t exist without you, you know that, right? You make me who I am.”

A year long friendship. A sly flirtation. All while falling deeply in love as we were left mostly alone on the rocky shores of coastal Maine. It had all brought us to that moment of surrender on the grass.

“I love you,” I whispered, throat tight. No other words were right or weighty enough to express what I was feeling as I gave him my virginity, my trust. I felt full of him, body and soul, and nothing in my life had ever been so perfect, so important.

“I love you, too.” His tongue ran over my bottom lip as he came inside me, and all his words echoed around and around in my head and my heart.

Yet they were promises that were broken.

And lies he told me.

Because that was the last time I saw him. 

Author Bio:

USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy sold her first book in 2002 and has since written almost fifty novels and novellas in teen fiction, new adult, and adult romance. Erin has a special weakness for New Orleans, tattoos, high-heeled boots, beaches and martinis. She lives in Ohio with her family, two grumpy cats and a socially awkward dog.

Author Links:

Website l Twitter l Goodreads l Facebook

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WAITING ON WEDNESDAY #66: Love, Lucy by April Lindner

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.

Inspired by E.M. Forster's A Room with a View.

Expected publication: January 15th 2015

A summer romance abroad with a street musician. Yeah, sign me up for that!!!
What book are you patiently waiting for the release of?

BLOG TOUR - REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Written On Her Heart (Callaway Cove #1) by Paige Rion

Andi Callaway has dreamed of becoming a published author her entire life.

Ford Delaney has always wanted nothing more than to escape his past.

An opportunity of a lifetime. This is what Andi finds when she returns home to Callaway Cove on summer break. A chance to work for her literary idol Ford Delaney is up for grabs, and she’s willing to risk everything—her boyfriend, her best friends, and her education—to get it.

She’s positive this will be the key to reaching her dreams. But the moment she begins working for the reclusive author, Andi realizes there’s more to him than just a name. As attraction builds between Andi and Ford, she begins to discover consequences must come hand-in-hand with something great—which could loosen control over her tightly wound life. And once romantic sparks fly, Andi’s other relationships start to crumble, Ford’s fame comes back to haunt him, and the heat they generate will either forge a powerful, enduring love or threaten everything she holds dear.

Purchase from Amazon l B&N l Kobo l Smashwords

My Thoughts

"I just want my books read and for people to love them. For my words to be the last thing people read before they go to bed and the first thing they reach for on a rainy day. I want my books to be a reprieve, an escape."

Andi Callaway wants to be an author and when an opportunity presents itself to become an assistant for her favourite author Ford Delaney, Andi jumps at the chance. Working for such a talented author could be just what she needs to make the contacts to get a foot in the door when it comes to her own desire to make it as a writer. Little does she know that this job will impact almost all aspects of her life, from her friendships, to her relationship with her boyfriend, to her future as an aspiring author.

What an enjoyable read Written On Her Heart was. I really loved that the story centred around Andi's desire to be an author. She was so confident in her ability to write a great story and that was really refreshing to read. I also liked that for the most part she wasn't scared to speak her mind and stand up for herself, although it did take a little longer for her to achieve that with her boyfriend Peter.

She felt an inexplicable pull to him, as if he held an invisible string tethered to her somewhere deep inside.

I loved Ford. He was that boy with a bad past. The boy's whose been wronged and fallen on the wrong side of the tracks, only to work his way out of it all and make something of his life. He was driven and passionate when it came to his writing. The romance was slow building despite their almost immediate connection, but it was at just a perfect pace. Not too rushed at all. They had a great rapport with each other and I especially loved how easy Ford found it to confide in Andi.

"I think a world without true love is a world without hope, one I don't want to be a part of. So, I choose to believe, whether it's real or not."

Andi's boyfriend Peter had me a bit torn. There were times when I liked him and then times when I just felt a whole lot of blah about him. But as the story went on, I was so happy with the way things progressed with him.

One of my recurring thoughts while reading this book was that I didn't connect very much with Andi's two best friends Carma and Rachel. In fact there wasn't a whole lot that I liked about Rachel at all. If she was a friend of mine, I'd be changing that real quick. She was so self centred. Yeah, she was having issues in her life, but that doesn't give you the right to be a crappy friend. But despite the things she says and does, Andi seemed to readily forgive her pretty much all of it.

The authors writing was great and allowed me to get completely lost in the story and the time reading it just seemed to whizz by, and before I knew it I was done. The story wasn't all one dimensional and touched on some tough issues. And while this is a New Adult read, it was never overly wordy in describing the intimacy between the characters but still being able to portray the connections adequately. 

I do have lots of questions left regarding some of the supporting characters. Having had some background into them throughout the book, their stories are left somewhat up in the air, so I'm assuming that the following books in the series may cover their stories. I'm definitely looking forward to finding out how things go. Written On Her Heart was a great start to the Calloway Cove series.

"I don't let people in, but with you it's easy... so easy. And it feels like I've known you a whole hell of a lot longer than I have. Like maybe I've known you forever, as cliche as it sounds."

4/5 Sweet Romance Stars

About Paige Rion
Paige Rion is a contemporary romance author. She’s a mother, wife, blogger, hopeless chocoholic, coffee-addicted, wine-lover. Her debut, novel—a new adult romance—Written On Her Heart, is the first in the Callaway Cove series. The next in the series is to be released this summer. She loves connecting with readers on her blog and social media.

Website l Twitter l Facebook

Win Paige Rion & WOHH Swag!!!

Prize 1

 Paige Rion deluxe tote. Your choice of either Paige Rion/WOHH t-shirt or “Team Ford” t-shirt. WOHH mug with quote. A signed bookmark and a mini Paige Rion candy box!

Prize 2

WOHH t-shirt. WOHH mug with quote. A signed bookmark and mini Paige Rion candy box!

Prize 3

 An exclusive WOHH iPhone 4 case. A white mug with genuine Paige Rion signature. Signed bookmark and mini Paige Rion candy box. (If winner does not have an iPhone 4, they will receive prize 4 and another winner will be drawn).

Prize 4

 10 more winners will receive a signed bookmark and a mini Paige Rion candy box!

Due to shipping costs, US ENTRIES ONLY.

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BOOK BLITZ - EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: To Know Me (To Know Me #1) by Marcy Blesy

To Know Me by Marcy Blesy
(To Know Me #1)
Publication date: August 21st 2013
Genres: Romance, Young Adult
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis:

To know me is to die.

Seventeen-year-old Mae is convinced that the consequences of her poor decisions have caused the untimely deaths of her dad, sister Laura, and grandma who all die within a year, no matter how ludicrous her thoughts seem to those she loves. The solution? Run away so no one else she cares for gets hurt (even if she has to keep a GPS tracker on her phone at all times).

Desperate to earn her diploma and salvage something of her life, she transfers schools when people get too close. After switching to Woodson Prep with only two months to go until graduation, Mae keeps her goals in sight. But when she meets Ty, the “perfect boy” with his own secrets and a relentless interest in Mae, she must decide if she can stop running from the past and still protect those she loves.

_

TO KNOW ME is the first book in a new YA romance series that follows Mae from her senior year in high school through her first two years in college as she learns to accept the consequences of her past mistakes that keep impacting the relationships with those she loves...and those she shouldn't.      Out now:  TO KNOW ME...TO LOVE ME...TO FORGIVE ME...and coming in summer 2014: TO CHOOSE ME.

Excerpt 

“Is this for me?” I ask as Ty stands in the center of the clearing with a yellow rose in one hand.

“No. It’s for that grandma who’ll be passing this area in about ten minutes. I’m just practicing my delivery.” He’s so cute when he’s being sarcastic. I take the rose. In an instant I am shocked back to the day of Laura’s funeral. Everyone in her sixth grade glass brought roses to the cemetery to lay upon her grave, yellow ones, her favorite color. “Why aren’t you smiling?” Ty asks. “Did I do something wrong?”

“N…no.”

“Your hand is shaking,” he says coming over to my side. “Sit down.” He points to the picnic table. “Mae, if you don’t tell me anything I won’t ever be able to help you. I want to help you. I know what it’s like to need help. There’s a lot you don’t know about me, too. And I’m willing to tell you. It’s weird because I hardly know anything about you, but I feel like we’re a lot alike.”

“We’re nothing alike,” I say. I want to tell him. But if I do? Then what? He won’t understand. No one does.

“Is yellow not a good color for brunettes?” he jokes. I can’t help but smile. He takes the rose, breaks off the stem, and tucks it behind my ear. He leans in to smell the rose and kisses my cheek. Only the crunching of sticks from the older couple on the path stops him from reaching my lips.

Author Bio:

Marcy Blesy is the author of several middle grade and young adult novels and short stories. Her picture book, Am I Like My Daddy?, helps children who experienced the loss of a parent when they were much younger. She has also been published in two Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as various newspapers and magazines. By day she runs an elementary school library and enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys.

Marcy is a believer in love and enjoys nothing more than making her readers feel a book more than simply reading it. She likes to connect with her readers via twitter (@marcyblesy), email (mablesy(at)yahoo.com), or her blog(www.marcyblesy.com).

Author Links:

Website l Facebook l Twitter l Goodreads

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STACKING THE SHELVES #17

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. It is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

*****

I have to apologise for not posting a STS post last week. I actually didn't spend much time online. I had to have a biopsy a few weeks ago, and the stitches didn't heal well and then I got an infection, so it's not been a great few weeks. So this post includes the books that I've gotten over the last two weeks.

For Review from NetGalley

Two by Karl Alexander

Stupid Girl by Cindy Miles

WON

I won copies of the first three books in the Runes series as well as signed bookmarks from Ednah Walters. I love this series so much, so I'm incredibly excited to have them to add to my collection.

I also won While We Run from one of my favourite blogs Behind the Pages.

Runes Series by Ednah Walters

While We Run (When We Wake #2) by Karen Healey

Purchased

My two trips to local used book stores saw me add these to my bookshelves.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (Necromancer #1) by Lish McBride

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Melody Burning by Whitley Strieber

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate

The Raising by Laura Kasischke

The Inevitability of Stars by Kathryn R. Lyster

I purchased these two books new this week.

Half Bad (Half Life Trilogy #1) by Sally Green

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Week In Review

Here are the reviews that I've posted this week.

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Breathe Into Me by Sara Fawkes

What books did you add to your shelves this week?

BOOK BITZ - EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: Orenda (Orenda #1) by Ruth Silver

ORENDA by Ruth Silver

a Young Adult Fantasy Adventure series

published by Patchwork Press

 

Join forces with a parallel universe. 

Dark forces, magical creatures, and the world Lil thought she knew collide when a dream transports her to the strange world of Orenda. Stunned and terrified, Lil comes face to face with her doppelganger, Willow, who possesses the ability to travel between the two worlds. Everything Lil knows logically says that Orenda can't exist, but a small clue may be proof that it was more than an ordinary dream. With the threat of her younger sister in danger, Lil crosses dimensions but it may cost her even more than she bargained for. 

 A sword wielding girl, the eternal suit, and a parallel universe come together in this action-packed Young Adult fantasy adventure that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages. Orenda is the first novel in the Orenda series.

Add to Goodreads

Amazon l Barnes & Noble l Signed Copy

  Excerpt: Lil stood firm, sword-in-hand, staring at the beast as it flew directly at her. “How do I kill it?” She raised the sword above her head with two hands. Hudson glanced at her. “With what we taught you. The dragon is no different than a man.” “It has wings and is flying at me. I’d say it’s different!”  

 About the Author: Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of ABERRANT, a young adult dystopian adventure series published by Patchwork Press and Lazy Day Publishing, in 2013. Silver attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication in the spring of 2005. While in college, she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required, because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. Her love of writing led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading, photography, traveling and most of all writing. She loves dystopian and fantasy young adult stories. Ruth has been actively writing since she was a teenager. Upcoming works include Royal Reaper, a young adult series about grim reapers, due for release June 3rd, 2014. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois. 

  Website l Twitter l Facebook l Amazon Author Page l Goodreads

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REVIEW: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you? 

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most? 

Julie Murphy’s Side Effects May Vary is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

My Thoughts:

Cancer would take away plenty. My hair, my body, my life. What I'd never realized, though, was that there was one privilege to dying: the right to live without consequence.

Sixteen year old Alice is diagnosed with Leukaemia. Things don't look promising, so Alice creates a bucket list of things she wants to do before she dies. A lot of things on that list are about revenge. Revenge on an ex boyfriend, and getting back at anyone who's wronged her. Reconnecting with her childhood friend Harvey, it's his friendship that she will count on the most. Just as her bucket list is almost complete, Alice is told that she is in remission. Instead of being happy and over the moon like most people would be, Alice realises that she now has to deal with the consequences of all of her actions. 

"You never surprise me Alice, which is such a disappointment." 

I have to say that I was quite apprehensive before going into Side Effects May Vary. A lot of people had told me that they didn't like, or didn't feel any connection to the main character. When I first started reading, I couldn't understand where everyone was coming from. Here is a girl who has been battling leukaemia. A girl who has just been told that she's in remission. How could you not be over the moon for her? How could you not connect with a girl who has beaten her disease? But as the story went on, it became so clear to me what the issues were that people had with her. She made it so hard to like her. Almost every one of her actions felt schemed and plotted.

I think at some stage we've all wished karma on someone. I don't think we'd be human if we didn't, but when we take things into our own hands and deliver that karma in the way that Alice did... I think that's a whole new ball game. Yes these people wronged her. Yes they were horrid at times. But to go to the extremes that Alice went to for revenge. I'm just not sure that sat well with me. 

Being an imaginary friend was a one-way street. If that's what I was to Alice, then maybe she only ever saw me when she needed me. I wondered what would happen when I needed her.

Then there was the way that Alice treated Harvey. Harvey who is so good. Harvey who has loved Alice through everything that she's gone through and even though he wholeheartedly disagreed with what Alice was doing, he went ahead and helped her anyway. Harvey, who wears his heart on his sleeve and would give her the world if he could. Harvey who was just so beautiful and so special. But he was like her little lost puppy at times, following her around and being loyal to a fault. 

On that cold night in January it all slipped into place for me and she became my everything and my everyone. My music, my sun, my words, my hope, my logic, my confusion, my flaw. 

But, at the end of the day, I didn't hate Alice. I felt sad that she had to fight such an insidious disease. I felt horrible for the things that her schoolmates did to her. I felt pity that she felt that she had to seek such revenge and then deal with the consequences of the things that she did. I was so unhappy that she struggled to treat Harvey with the respect that he deserved. But I didn't hate her. There were times that I disliked her actions, but there was always something that stopped me from completely giving up on her. I think that it was because that whatever Harvey saw in her, I wanted to get a glimpse of that too. 

The story switches rather seamlessly from the past to the present and then backwards and forwards between the point of view of both Alice and Harvey. I didn't see any real structure to it, but it worked really well, since both characters thoughts and voices are very different. Had the book just been told through Alice's eyes, I think my thoughts at the end of reading it may have been very different, so I'm incredibly thankful for Harvey.

Despite my trepidations, I really enjoyed Julie Murphy's debut and I will definitely pick up more of her work in the future.

4/5 Sweet Harvey Stars

Received from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest opinion.

RELEASE DAY BLAST - EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller by L.B. Simmons

The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller

By: L.B. Simmons

Releasing April 25th, 2014

****NA Contemporary Romance******

Death.

For some, it’s simply one of life’s certainties, nothing more. For others, it’s merely a fleeting thought, one often overshadowed by the reckless delusion that they have been blessed with the gift of immortality.

For Aubrey Miller, death is the definition of her very existence. Overcome with the guilt resulting from the loss of her beloved family, she alters her appearance from the once beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl to that of one shrouded in complete darkness, enveloping herself in her own unbreakable fortress of solitude as a form of protection for others.

As she enters her first year of college, her goal is simple: Earn a degree with the least amount of social interaction as possible. What she never anticipates is the formation of very unlikely relationships with two people who will change her life in ways she never believed possible: Quinn Matthews, the boisterous former pageant queen, and Kaeleb McMadden, a childhood friend from her past who never really let her go.

Over the years, as their connections intertwine and grow, a seemingly indestructible bond is formed between the three…

But when death painfully reemerges, Aubrey is lost once again, burying herself deeper than ever before inside the familiar fortification of her fears.

Will the refuge of friendship, the solidarity of life-long bonds, and the power of unconditional love be enough to do the impossible?

Will they be enough to finally bring about…

The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller?

Excerpt

The memory escapes slowly from its confinement, almost cautiously, before finally freeing itself, rushing my mind so quickly I physically wince in response. The pain it will yield is inevitable and I’m defenseless against it as it begins to replay in my mind:

“I don’t want to go, Kaeleb. I’m scared.” I wipe the endless streams of tears from my cheeks as I search desperately for the relief of comfort from his glistening eyes. But there’s nothing that can help me now. Cold darkness threatens to swallow me as I’m pulled under and barely breathing. I’m dying. Just like my family.

“Bree,” he responds, quickly removing the salty trails of sorrow from his own face. “You have to go. You – ”

“I know. I have no one here.” I sigh. “They’re all…gone.”

Kaeleb nods ever so slightly before pulling me into his arms. Only eight years old, same age as me, yet his hold feels so strong, so secure. I know he doesn’t want to let me go, and as the pretty lady with the rose perfume comes to break us apart, the need for us to grasp onto each other becomes more frantic. She calls for help and as they pry us apart, the tears continue to roll down our cheeks with the knowledge that this will be our last moment together.  We hold as tightly as we can, but are eventually broken apart, our fingers the last to let go as we reach for each other. 

“I love you, Kaeleb,” I whisper to myself as they gently guide me into the back seat of an unknown car. Before they close me in I scream as loudly as I can. “You’re my best friend!”

His eyes meet mine as they shut the door between us. With purpose, he stalks to the car and just as they start the engine, he places his palm flat on the window with his fingers spread as far as they will go. Slamming my hand against the cool glass, I mirror his gesture, knowing this will be the last time I will ever be in the presence of my friend. My best friend.

As we drive away, I watch out the back window as he runs down the street as long as his weary legs can carry him.  They eventually buckle underneath him and his knees hit the ground, unable to keep up any longer.

Throwing my hand against the back window, the car turns the corner and I lose sight of him. Not until he’s gone do I allow myself to surrender to the darkness. I no longer fight for the need to breathe as I let go.  Stepping out of myself, I watch the pretty, blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl slowly dying as she sinks, spiraling lower and lower, until finally disappearing into the bottomless pit that consumes her.

“Hell-ooooo!” Quinn’s voice filters slowly through the searing pain of my memory, bringing me back into the present where I’m still standing on my bed and the damn poster is still swinging from side-to-side behind me.  But now, instead of the sound barely registering, it’s grating against my eardrums like nails on a chalkboard.

Author Info

L.B. Simmons is a graduate of Texas A&M University and holds a degree in Biomedical Science. She has been a practicing Chemist for the last 11 years. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Texas and writes every chance she gets.

Author Links: 

Facebook l Twitter l Goodreads l Amazon

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Check back later today for my review