5 Star Review: Sweet Reckoning (Wendy Higgins)

Paperback, 464 pages
Expected publication: April 29th 2014 by HarperTeen
ARC Provided by Publisher for Honest Review

It’s time.

Evil is running rampant and sweet Anna Whitt is its target. Nobody knows when or how the Dukes will strike, but Anna and her Nephilim allies will do anything necessary to rid the earth of the demons and their oppressive ways.
The stakes are higher than ever, and Anna is determined that the love she feels will be her strength, not a liability. But trying to protect the ones she loves while running for her life and battling demonic forces proves to be perilous—especially as faces are changing and trust is fleeting. When the Duke of Lust sends Anna’s great love, Kaidan Rowe, to work against her, Anna must decide how much she’s prepared to risk.
In the most sensual and fast-paced installment yet, Sweet Reckoning brings all the beloved Neph together one last time to fight for their freedom. 

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After earning a Creative Writing degree from George Mason University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, I taught high school English until becoming a mommy. I've always had a heart for teens, and writing YA stories gives me the opportunity to delve into the ambiguities of those pivotal years before adulthood.I live in the D.C. area with my husband, daughter, son and puppy Rue.

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"I loved Kaiden Rowe, and he loved me. 

I loved Patti and my father, and I knew they were willing to die for me.

I loved the Nephilim, and wanted to set them free from the terror of their fathers.

I loved the inherent goodness in humanity and the potential for a better future on earth without demon interference.

For the first time ever, I didn't doubt myself."

First and foremost this is by far my FAVORITE book of the entire series. Wendy Higgins has raised the bar with this one. It has everything that a conclusion to a phenomenal series should have. It has drama, suspense, mystery, and unbelievable romance. I cannot rave enough about this book. 

Now onto the cover....LOVE LOVE LOVE all the colors on the cover of this gorgeous book. The light pink of Anna's dress is so subtle and somehow just fits this story so perfect. Anna looks so innocent and Kaiden looks over her should so protectively. It just FIT and fit perfectly. 

Kaiden and Anna are at the top of my favorite YA couples list and this book easily kept them at the top. Kai and Anna's chemistry is so addictive and I felt myself cheering for them throughout the entire book. Their love is one of the ages and Wendy knows just how to describe their relationship that just makes them so adorable. 

"I watched him swallow, then close his eyes as a shiver ran through his body. When he opened his eyes again, color poured through the air around him--the vivid, hot pink of passionate love."

There are several new characters that are introduced in this book and they each play a pivotal role in the end battle with evil.  Anna's father also plays an important role and is so dedicated to Anna at times I just felt like crying. It was the perfect father/daughter relationship.

Anna's character is so strong, good, and heroic. The Nephilim need a savior and she rises to the top in this book. She faces so many demons...both inside and in the real world and she must find a way to overcome both in order to defeat the Dukes.

Kaiden is so much more humble in this book and of course makes me swoon over him completely!! I love his dangerous, moody side but I also love to see him kind and good.  

Both Kai and Anna along with the other Nephs face so many challenges. I just found myself flipping pages so fast to see what happened next. Each chapter was filled with just as much suspense and secrets as the next. I don't want to ruin the conclusion for other readers of the Sweet series so I am not going to divulge to much in this review but just know that IT IS THE BEST OF THE SERIES and lots of questions will be answered.  I especially loved how Wendy chose to close out the story. It will forever hold a place in my heart. Yes it was that amazing....

**I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to HarperTeen for the opportunity to review this phenomenal, incredible, AMAZING book!!**

**The quotes from this book have been taken from an Advanced Reading Copy and are subject to change when the final book is printed. Please refer to the final, finished copy for exact quotes!**

Rockstar Book Tours Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway: Summer On The Short Bus (Bethany Crandell)

Paperback, 272 pages
Expected publication: April 1st 2014 by Running Press Kids

ARC Provided by Publisher for Honest Review

Cricket Montgomery has been thrown under the short bus. Shipped off to a summer camp by her father, Cricket is forced to play babysitter to a bunch of whiny kids—or so she thinks. When she realizes this camp is actually for teens with special needs, Cricket doubts she has what it takes to endure twenty-four hours, let alone two weeks.
Thanks to her dangerously cute co-counselor, Quinn, there may be a slim chance for survival. However, between the campers’ unpredictability and disregard for personal space, Cricket’s limits get pushed. She will have to decide if suffering through her own handicapped hell is worth a summer romance—and losing her sanity.

Find it:

  Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

I wish I had some mysterious secret to reveal about myself in hopes that you'd find me interesting...but I don't. When it comes to me, what you see is what you get. And what you get is an irreverent, sarcastic and emotional girl who writes stories about characters with these same traits.
I live in San Diego with my husband, two kiddos, and a chocolate lab who has no regard for personal space. I'm slightly obsessed with John Hughes and the wonderful collection of films he left behind, and I'm confident that Jake Ryan will be showing up on my doorstep any day now...
I firmly believe that prayer solves problems, and that laughter is the best medicine. Along with avocados. Avocados make the world a better place.
I'm represented by Rachael Dugas of Talcott Notch Literary Agency.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

I was not sure what I would think as I began reading Summer On The Short Bus. When reading the synopsis I immediately felt a pull towards the special needs kids and knew that this would be an emotional book. Yet when I began reading this book it was so much more than just a story about special needs kids. 

This is a story about Cricket Montgomery and how she overcomes her selfish, material ways and finds out more about herself than she could ever imagine. Cricket is sent to a summer camp to be a camp leader after her father is pushed to his limits by her irresponsible actions. 

"And as if lecturing me until I was ready to ram scissors in my ears wasn't bad enough, he salted the wound by announcing that not only was he confiscating my credit cards until school started, but I would not be flying to Maui with Katie and her family as planned. Instead, I would be spending the rest of my summer acting as a camp counselor to a bunch of tweens who are too lame to know that summer camp stopped being cool when you were seven. Surely this is some kind of sick joke."

Cricket arrives at the summer camp and has no idea what she is getting into. Little does she know this is a summer camo for kids with special needs such as the handicapped and the mentally retarded. The children immediately take to Cricket and all she can do is cry and try to run away. 

This story surprised me in so many amazing ways. Cricket deals with so much pain, heartache, love,  surprise, and joy throughout her summer at the camp. I truly loved this book. I loved the kids and how they affect Cricket and all the other people around them. I love how this book shows the kids awesomeness and how normal they really are!! It was a short, sweet story that was a perfect mix of friendship, love, and family relationships. 

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Tour Schedule

Week One:

3/24/2014- Swoony Boys Podcast- Interview

3/25/2014- YaReads- Review

3/26/2014- Fire and Ice- Guest Post

3/27/2014- Fiction Freak- Review

3/28/2014- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

Week Two:

3/31/2014- Curling Up With A Good Book- Review

4/1/2014- Sweet Southern Home- Guest Post

4/2/2014- The Reading Date- Review

4/3/2014- Bookish- Interview

4/4/2014- Once upon a twilight- Review

Itching For Books Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway: Road To Somewhere (Jenny S. Morris)

Release Date: March 11th 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Spark
Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Synopsis via Goodreads:A road trip. A singing competition. And super-hot cowboys.
What could be better?
For Charlie, a post-high school road trip isn't just a vacation, it's life changing. While her parents think she's helping a friend move, a chance at fame is the real reason to grab her best friends and drive to L.A. But when her super annoying, uber-responsible, younger sister, Lucy, has to tag along, it isn't quite the summer of fun she imagined.

Add in a detour to her grandparents' ranch in Texas, and between mucking the stalls, down-home cookin’, and drool worthy ranch hands, this could just turn into the best, and most complicated, summer of their lives.

About the AuthorsKelley Lynn was born and raised a Midwestern girl. She’s not afraid to sweat and fills her free time with softball, soccer and volleyball. (Though you probably don’t want her on your volleyball team.) She occasionally makes guest appearances as a female vocalist for area bands. Music plays a large role in her writing process as well as the characters and plot lines within her stories.

getbetweenthebookends.blogspot.com | twitter.com/KelleyLynn1

Jenny S. Morris is a YA author who loves all things geek, may have a Kdrama addiction, and prefers the rainy NW to any place she's ever lived. Road to Somewhere is her debut novel.

jennysimaginaryworld.blogspot.com | twitter.com/jennysmorris

OMG!!!! Loved this book! Could not put it down! Made me want to hug my sister and kiss my high school summer love! I am really hoping this is not the end of Charlie and Lucy's journey...I want more....I need more!!! 

Charlie is the older sister that feels like she is always being compared to her younger sister Lucy. Charlie wants to take a road trip with her girlfriends after they graduate high school but the only way her parents will let her go is if her sister tags along. Little did Lucy or Charlie know that this road trip would both make them realize how perfect they both are in their own way. When the girls stop at their grandparents they both fall for hot cowboys that work as ranch hands for their grandfather. Young sweet love!!! My favorite kind of story! Please tell me there is another book! I give this one 4.5 stars!

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Fools For Books Giveaway Hop (April 1st- April 7th)

Fool for Books Giveaway Hop

April 1st to 7th

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Book Nerd Tours & Giveaway: Blackness Takes Over (Norma Jeanne Karisson)

Shannon Kelly’s life has been anything but typical.
Her life has been altered viciously at the hands of others twice.

However horrible they have been, it’s these changes that have given her a family and career…now possibly love.
The last thirteen years she has been supported and loved by her protector, her entertainer, and her comforter, but never a lover.
When Dylan Kellerman enters Shannon’s life he changes its course in more ways than one.
He gives her hope and promise of a future she was convinced wasn’t attainable.

Just as she begins to believe she has finally turned her life into something she can build a future on…blackness takes over.

    

Blackness Takes Over is Norma Jeanne’s debut novel. What began as an homage to the home town of a homesick Midwestern girl, unfolded a story of love, danger, humor, and trust. She’s currently working on her untitled sophomore effort. We can’t wait to see what thrilling saga she leads us through next!
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Norma Jeanne recently found herself relocating to the United Kingdom. Now living in Belfast, she took hold of the opportunity to kick the 9-5 job for a chance to become an author. The best part: working from her home office, she gets to spend more time with her cast of crazy characters (written and real).
In her free time Norma Jeanne is a voracious reader and consumes books as readily as meals. She is a people watcher by nature and uses her experiences in life, observed or otherwise, to build the worlds and characters that thrive in her books. A believer in the strength of the human spirit, Norma Jeanne writes the stories of people that persevere when all appears to be lost.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” –Dylan Thomas

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Rockstar Book Tours Blog Tour, Excerpt, & Giveaway:Darkside Sun (Jocelyn Adams)

ebook, First edition, 291 pages
Published March 10th 2014 by Embrance

The dead have been waiting for her…
Addison Beckett tries hard to pretend she’s normal, but she’s far from it. Since she was six years old, she’s seen the world around her unraveling, as if someone is pulling a thread from a sweater and it’s all slowly coming undone. When she ignores it, it goes away, so that’s what she does.
Enter her arrogant-but-hot professor Asher Green. He knows all about her special brand of crazy. In fact, he might be just as nuts as she is. Asher insists that the dead from a parallel dimension are trying to possess the living in this one. And since Addison seems to be the only one who can see these “wraiths,” she just might be the key to saving the world.
Addison wants nothing to do with Asher or his secret society, The Mortal Machine. But as their animosity grows, she finds it harder and harder to ignore the chemistry between them. And when she discovers that Machine laws forbid her from touching him, she realizes that’s all she wants to do.
Stop the wraiths. Break the rules. Save the world. All in a day’s work.
Normal was overrated, anyway.

Find it:

Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes& Noble

Jocelyn Adams lives in the Muskoka region of Ontario with her high school sweetheart and young daughter. She writes dark, romantic fantasy, is a wife, mother, blogger, carbaholic, and a former IT geek.Find her Young Adult-friendly persona here.

Website * Blog * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads

His sentinel energy hummed beneath his skin, but it didn’t hurt or burn, only seemed to sink deep into me, inviting something in me to answer. He clamped his lids down and took shallow breaths as I combed my fingers through the silk of his hair. A moan escaped both of us in unison. I had a little “knowing” of my own, that he could awaken me in more ways than one, and I could awaken him. He wanted me to, I knew it.

Inhaling his delicious spicy scent, I pressed my cheek to his, my hand sweeping around to grip his nape and get as close to a hug as I dared for. I sighed, melting against his warmth. Nothing had ever been as right, and if he ever let me go, nothing would be right again.

He trembled for a moment before a growl crawled up his throat, and he wrapped his arm around me, clamping me tight against him.

Oh. My. God. My whole body came alive with heat and wants that would have made me blush if I hadn’t been so caught up in the moment. If I died right this second, I’d go out full of bliss and without a regret in the world. 

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Tour Schedule:

Week 1:

3/17/2014- Shortie Says - Review

3/17/2014- Fantasy Book Addict- Excerpt

3/18/2014- Reese's Reviews- Review

3/18/2014- BiblioJunkies- Guest Post

3/19/2014- Sabrina's Paranormal Palace- Review

3/19/2014- Fade Into Fantasy- Interview

3/20/2014- Anna Lives and Breathes Books- Review

3/20/2014- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

3/21/2014- The Demon Librarian- Review

3/21/2014- The Cover Contessa- Guest Post

Week 2:

3/24/2014 Book Club Sisters- Review

3/24/2014- Library of the Seen- Interview

3/25/2014- Shayna Varadeaux Books & Reviews- Review

3/25/2014- Parajunkee's View- Interview

3/26/2014- As the page turns- Review

3/26/2014- Curling Up With A Good Book- Excerpt

3/27/2014- Living in a Bookworld- Review

3/27/2014- Wonderful Monster- Interview

3/28/2014- Julie Antonovich Reece- Review

3/28/2014- Talking Books Blog- Guest Post

Rockstar Book Tours, Excerpt. & Giveaway: If Only (A.J. Pine)

Sometimes it takes crossing an ocean to figure out where you belong.
It's been two years since twenty-year-old Jordan had a boyfriend—which means it's been forever since she, well, you know. But now she’s off to spend her junior year in Aberdeen, Scotland, the perfect place to stop waiting for Mr. Right and just enjoy Mr. Right Now.
Sexy, sweet (and possible player) Griffin may be her perfect, no-strings-attached match. He’s fun, gorgeous, and makes her laugh. So why can’t she stop thinking about Noah who, minutes after being trapped together outside the train’s loo, kisses Jordan like she’s never been kissed before? Never mind his impossible blue eyes, his weathered, annotated copy of The Great Gatsby (total English-major porn)…oh, and his girlfriend.
Jordan knows everything this year has an expiration date. Aberdeen is supposed to be about fun rather than waiting for life to happen. But E. M. Forster, Shakespeare, and mistletoe on Valentine’s Day make her reconsider what love is and how far she’s willing to go for the right guy.

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

AJ writes stories to break readers’ hearts, but don’t worry—she’ll mend those hearts with a happily ever after…maybe. The first book she wrote was YA, but now she’s two-timing her first love Pine4BWwith NA. She’s always in the middle of reading two to three books, adores online shopping (everything from groceries to shoes), and she still loves vampires, whether it’s Eric Northman or the Salvatore brothers. When she’s not writing, AJ is sneaking off to her day job as a high school English teacher or hanging with her husband and kids in the Chicago burbs.
AJ’s debut NA novel, IF ONLY, releases with Entangled’s Embrace line on March 24!
Representation: Courtney Miller-Callihan at SJGA.

Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

Teaser Excerpt #2—Jordan meets Noah on the train.

Standing outside the loo, I really do have to pee, but the door says Occupied. Thankfully, I hear the sad excuse for a sink inside. Good, my wait will be short. As the lock clicks open, the train jostles enough that the bathroom’s occupant stumbles out, pinning me up against the doors that lead back into my train car.

My face is buried in his neck, and despite his exiting the tiniest closet of a public loo, he smells good. Like, really good. Like, running-through-a-field-of-just-cut-grass, laundry-fresh-out-of-the-dryer good.

He pushes back, his hands resting on the door on either side of me, a small laugh mingling with his exhale. “Sorry,” he says, his Midwestern accent unmistakable. Another American. “Turbulence, I guess.” His voice is deep with the slightest rasp, and I can actually hear his smile. When I look up, my stomach does this flippy thing that makes me think I should get into the closet loo stat. Glinting blue eyes stare back at me, and I see my dazed reflection in his irises. I should say something, right? I should stop staring and say something.

A tremble of a laugh precedes my words. “I thought that only happened on airplanes.”

His brown hair is long enough that it’s starting to curl up at his temples and above his ears. I stifle the urge to run my hands through it and silently berate myself for said urge. Something is wrong with me.

He smiles and shrugs. “It’s all yours,” he says, stepping aside. “Watch your step on the dismount.” He looks back at me, nodding toward the door with a hesitant smile.

I regain my composure, ready for my wittiest retort. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Or, maybe I’ll opt for not even close to witty.

I rush into the body-sized compartment and lock the door. My breathing steadies, and my stomach stops doing acrobatics. What the hell was that?

When I exit the loo, I make sure to watch my step on the dismount. What I’m not expecting is to see loo boy examining the compartment door, running his fingers along the seam.

“So, here’s the thing,” he says, his brows knitted together. “The door is kind of jammed.”

He looks down, avoiding my eyes.

I should respond to what he said, but my only thought right now is how my stomach contracts again at the sound of his voice.

“Hey.” He’s talking again. “Did you hear me?” His head lifts to meet mine, and this time I see it, the glassy panic in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” I ask, somehow regaining composure. His eyes plead for something, and I want to help him. But I don’t know what he needs.

I grab the handle of the pocket door and try to slide it open, just to be sure he’s right. It doesn’t budge.

As if God, or the universe, or L. Ron Hubbard has it in for me, the train jostles again, thrusting me straight back into loo boy.

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