Book Review: Owning Violet by Monica Murphy

Title: Owning Violet (The Fowler Sisters #1)
Author: Monica Murphy
Publication Date: December 02, 2014
Genre: New Adult, Erotica
e-ARC from Netgalley

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I've moved through life doing what's expected of me. I'm the middle daughter, the dutiful daughter. The one who braved a vicious attack and survived. The one who devoted herself to her family's business empire. The one who met an ambitious man and fell in love. We were going to run Fleur Cosmetics together, Zachary and I.

Until he got a promotion and left me in the dust. Maybe it's for the best, between his disloyalty and his wandering eye. But another man was waiting for me. Wanting me. He too has an overwhelming thirst for success, just like Zachary - perhaps even more so. He's also ruthless. And mysterious. I know nothing about Ryder McKay beyond that he makes me feel things I've never felt before.

One stolen moment, a kiss, a touch . . . and I'm hooked. Ryder's like a powerful drug, and I'm an addict who doesn't want to be cured. He tells me his intentions aren't pure, and I believe him. For once, I don't care. I'm willing to risk everything just to be with him. Including my heart. My soul.

My everything.

Advance praise for Owning Violet

"Owning Violet owned me from the first page to the last. Ryder and Violet's chemistry is off the charts! Read it, own it, love it!" - New York Times bestselling author Katy Evans

             Violet is the perfect daughter, sister, girlfriend, and employee, but Ryder comes along with a hidden agenda. He is very ambitious and he will do whatever it takes to get that promotion and be successful, but that’s what he thought until he burned something inside Violet that she haven’t felt before. Ryder just wants to play a game with Violet, but he doesn’t know that this game will make a huge change in his life.

At first you will be seriously pissed at Ryder, but at the story progresses you will realize that he's not an asshole you thought he was. This book will make you want to punch Zachary in the balls. The phrase ‘once a cheater, always a cheater’ is seriously perfect for him.

Fun, sexy, annoying, panty-dropping and infuriating. Owning Violet will make you feel a lot of things in just a flick of your fingers.

New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author Monica Murphy i

s a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite with her husband and three children. She’s a workaholic who loves her job. When she’s not busy writing, she also loves to read and travel with her family. She writes new adult and contemporary romance and is published with Bantam and Avon. She also writes romance as USA Today bestselling author Karen Erickson, and is published with Samhain Publishing and Entangled Brazen and Bliss.

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Book Review: Calling California by J.P. Grider

Title: Calling California

Author: J.P. Grider

Genre: New Adult, Romance

Review copy from: Xpresso Book Tours 

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Cali Parker is poor. She has a lot on her plate - her father is dying, she's working to help pay the rent, and she's two-years behind in college.

Griffin Brooks is rich. He has not a care in the world - he's acing his engineering courses, his hobby is restoring his fifty-thousand dollar classic car, and he has a different girl on his arm every week.

When Cali sees Griffin on her first day of class, she's immediately smitten and thinks she's found the perfect guy. When Griffin sees Cali at the bank, he immediately forgets the blonde he was with that morning. Then they meet, and their worlds collide.

Cali doesn't belong in Griffin’s world, and he doesn't understand hers. But just when Griffin convinces Cali that their two different worlds can blend, a secret is revealed that tears them apart.

Is their love strong enough to bring them back together, or will their worlds drift further apart?

Calista Parker, Cali for short - California to Griffin Brooks - never had an easy life. She began taking jobs here and there in order to support her family when her father was diagnosed of lung cancer.

When their paths crossed in more ways than one, her life changed drastically.

Griffin challenged who she is and what she believes in. Along with his entrance to her life, Cali was exposed to not only just love, but the harsh realities of life and the truth. 

What I like about this book is the twist at the end. Another thing are the character's relationships with one another. These were tested, making the character's experiences coincide with one another. It's a web of intricate, fragile strings connecting the characters together. Once the secret was out, those strings were tested and at the end, they managed to remain entangled, despite the lesions here and there.

My only gripe about it is that I wish there was a focus or even a moment on Cali's father. It was like he was just a throwaway character. Heck, it's as if he served no other purpose than just to die in the end. This goes the same for the other characters as well. I wished to see more of them and the stories they have and how it interweaves with Cali's and Griffin's.

Still, this book is filled with surprises that can almost (ALMOST) rival with my favorite NA book. The twists and turns of the story was the one that won me over despite the rich-and-poor aspect.

"I've developed butterflies, and I think, what fucking guy gets butterflies in their stomach?" 

 

 J.P. Grider is a Young Adult and New Adult author. She is the author of six novels. Her young adult series The Honor Trilogy consists of A Touch of Honor, A Man of Honor, and A Heart of Honor, while her first two novels - Unplugged (A Portrait of a Rock Star) and Maybe This Life - are standalone adult contemporary novels. Her most recent release is the new adult romance Calling California, which is the first in her Hunter Hill University series. The next book in the series – Mending Mick – will be released in October, 2014. All the books in the Hunter Hill University series will be standalone books and can be read in any order.

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Book Review: Before You by Amber Hart

Before You (Before and After #1)

Amber Hart

YA, Romance

Copy from Netgalley

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Some say love is deadly. Some say love is beautiful. I say it is both.

Faith Watters spent her junior year traveling the world, studying in exquisite places, before returning to Oviedo High School. From the outside her life is picture-perfect. Captain of the dance team. Popular. Happy. Too bad it’s all a lie.

It will haunt me. It will claim me. It will shatter me. And I don't care.

Eighteen-year-old Diego Alvarez hates his new life in the States, but staying in Cuba is not an option. Covered in tattoos and scars, Diego doesn't stand a chance of fitting in. Nor does he want to. His only concern is staying hidden from his past—a past, which if it were to surface, would cost him everything. Including his life.

At Oviedo High School, it seems that Faith Watters and Diego Alvarez do not belong together. But fate is as tricky as it is lovely. Freedom with no restraint is what they long for. What they get is something different entirely.

Love—it will ruin you and save you, both.

 She wants to not let her past rule her.

And he wants to forget it but couldn't. 

Will they let these demons of their past consume them..

Or would be able to fight through these, together?

Diego and Faith may believe that they belong to two different worlds when in reality, their worlds are very similar with one another. 

Both worlds cast judgement on the other. 

But the story doesn't entirely focus on that aspect. 

It focuses on how these two people, despite their worlds, met and were brought together. 

This story tells of how these two were able to break the walls that kept them apart. 

Personally, the book is a good enough read and yet, for me, nothing makes it stand out from the other books with similar plots. 

Its saving grace, however, was the the ending. 

The author has shocked me (a little) with the second chapter to the last. I thought she was going to break out from the norm as is commonly seen in stories like this but that wasn't the case. 

And I can honestly say that I am not disappointed. 

Before You is a story on accepting oneself; your flaws, the decisions you've made and the things you've done. It is only through this that you'd be able to open yourself to others, be able to connect with them by being who you truly are. 

 "There are moments in life set apart from the rest. The before this moment, and the after this moment. Diego is one of those moments for me."

"She is the key that unlocked my darkness. She poured in millions and millions of kilowatts of sunshine."

 

Amber Hart is the author of:

BEFORE YOU, edgy YA contemporary romance, Kensington 2014.
AFTER US, sequel to BEFORE YOU, Kensington 2015.
ECHOES, NA contemporary romantic thriller, Penguin Random House/Flirt 2014.
TBA, sequel to ECHOES, Penguin Random House/Flirt 2015.
Rep'd by Beth Miller of Writers House.

Amber Hart grew up in Orlando, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia. She now resides on the Florida coastline with family. When unable to find a book, she can be found writing, daydreaming, or with her toes in the sand. She's the author of BEFORE YOU, AFTER US, UNTIL YOU FIND ME, and sequel to UNTIL YOU FIND ME (untitled as of yet). Represented by Beth Miller of Writers House. 


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Book Review: Since Forever Ago by Olivia Besse

Title: Since Forever Ago

Author: Olivia Besse

Publish date: May 13, 2014

Copy from: Netgalley

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Fresh off the heels of a devastating breakup, Riley Benson is a mess. But with her ingenious plan to become a ball-busting heartbreaker herself, she’s pretty sure she’ll survive. After all, what better way is there to get revenge than to move on?

Riley’s determined to become the perfect bachelorette—she’s going to drink like a bro, belch like a beast and swear so much that she’ll make even the most seasoned sailors blush. After all, those are the qualities that every guy’s secretly looking for…. aren’t they?

Max Fletcher is in love with the girl who gave him chicken pox and his first broken leg. When his best friend seems to finally be out of the picture, he can’t help but want to keep Riley all to himself. And, after coaching her with the very best of the very worst love advice, it seems as if he might actually get what he's wanted after all those years. But just as the two come to the realization that they're actually kind of perfect for each other, along comes a secret that threatens to tear them apart.

I try to keep an open mind while reading this book. There were a lot of bad reviews about it and I tried to not let it color my view and overall experience with the book.

Although honestly, I tried to quit reading it.

BUT WAIT! 
Hear me out first.
There are indeed certain instances in the book where you would just like to throw it to the window or the 50th floor but this is my advice to you. 

FINISH THIS BOOK. 

If you need to rest after reading the characters b*tch about their lives, do so.
Then continue reading.
Even when you feel like this.

You just have to

And that's what I did.

Overall, Since Forever Ago is a light, comical, new adult novel dealing with how a twenty-something guy and girl deals with life and relationships. This book focused on the latter.

In order for the love of his life, his best friend, to be his, Max Fletcher has done the unthinkable.
He has given advice to his best girl, Riley Benson. And she will do those because, after all, Max is her bestfriend.

After all, Riley’s determined to become the perfect bachelorette—she’s going to drink like a bro, belch like a beast and swear so much that she’ll make even the most seasoned sailors blush. After all, those are the qualities that every guy’s secretly looking for…. aren’t they?

I honestly have no favorite character. What I love about it are the interactions between characters. The way they behave towards each other made me laugh a few times, especially those between Max and Riley.

Their friendship evolved. There were times that it was challenged but in the end, it turned to something wonderful. 

And yet, the thing I don't like about the book is how the characters always whine. At the age of 21, I think girls and boys have matured enough to not always whine about anything and everything. Because, even when you have problems, you just have to suck it up and be able to overcome it. In that way, you mature. 

If you get past the whining, CONGRATULATIONS! Since Forever Ago is a light read that may make you notice that the one you're waiting for, has been there for you all along.

P.S. ugh, the author is just so...so...beautiful.
I can't help but admire her. She looks like Karmin

Olivia is a New Adult who pens novels about New Adults. Having spent much of her best years slaving away in the not-so-glamorous industries of fashion and PR, she has a never-ending supply of insider knowledge and horrifying experiences from which to draw from in order to create fun and unique stories. She currently resides in New York and is moonlighting as a writer to keep what's left of her sanity.

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Book Review: Freak of Nature (IFICS #1) by Julia Crane

Title: Freak of Nature (IFICS #1) 

Author: Julia Crane

Genre: Sci-Fi, NA

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Donate Body to Science. Check.
When seventeen-year-old Kaitlyn checked the box, she never suspected she’d have her life–and her body–stolen from her. She awakens one day in a secret laboratory to discover that her body is now half-robot and is forced to hide her own secret: that she still has human emotions and a human mind. If the scientists who made her find out, they’ll erase what remains of who she was.

Kaitlyn finds an unlikely ally in Lucas, a handsome, brilliant scientist who can’t get over the guilt he feels knowing she was once a vibrant, beautiful young woman. He never expected a science project to affect him the way she does. As he tries to help her rediscover her past, he finds himself falling for the brave girl struggling to find her place and acceptance between the human and computer worlds.

Everyone, meet Kaitlyn

The first human cyborg. 

Created by IFICS, Kaitlyn's purpose was to become the strongest, most lethal weapon known to man. 

But there is one problem. 

And that is...

Well, you better read it. 
 

The idea of the human turned drone really caught my attention. Kaitlyn, having lost her life and now donated her body to science, acts very human despite her gear-controlled body and mechanically-supported heart. 

And, despite with those mechanical alterations, she is still human. She befriends Quess, the Adams' granddaughter and she feels for Lucas, her warden-slash-scientist, who helped in developing her into the cyborg she was believed to be.

I also like it for the following reasons: 

The training and modifications that Kaitlyn had undergone post-cyborg is quite detailed. From handling a gun to installing a slang chip, it made the book have the sense of authenticity as it walks through certain changes to Kaitlyn as she became more cyborg and less human. Or so they thought.

The romance between Lucas and Kaitlyn was just the right amount. The interchanging points-of-view between Lucas and Kaitlyn was also good as it builds up what one thinks of and feels for the other. I have one quip about this though. The book (for me) could have done without the love scene between them. Sure, it may have connected them more but, if the author really wanted to include a scene, it could have been better in the later books. That part felt rushed just so they (Kaitlyn and Lucas), despite Lucas' asking Kaitlyn if she wants to, can get it out of the way.

I really can't wait to read the second book and be able to see more of Kaitlyn and how she struggles with being the first human-cyborg in mankind's history.


And, I really wish more action scenes would be on the second book for the only action in the first book was this:

 "Half-human, half-machine. She didn't quite fit into either world. I'm an abomination, she thought, her shoulders slumping."

 
 Julia crane is the author of the Coexist: Keegan’s Chronicles. She has a bachelors degree in criminal justice. Julia has believed in magical creatures since the day her grandmother first told her an Irish tale. Growing up her mother greatly encouraged reading and using your imagination. Although she’s spent most of her life on the US east coast, she currently lives in Dubai with her husband and three children.

  

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Book Review: Come Back To Me by Mila Gray!

Title: Come Back To Me

Author: Mila Gray (a.k.a Sarah Alderson)

Published: June 19, 2014

Genre: New Adult

Source: eARC from author

Home on leave in sunny California, Marine and local lothario Kit Ryan finds himself dangerously drawn to his best friend's sister, Jessa - the one girl he can't have.

But Kit's not about to let a few obstacles stand in his way and soon Jessa's falling for his irresistible charms.

What starts out as a summer romance of secret hook-ups and magical first times quickly develops into a passionate love affair that turns both their worlds upside down.

When summer's over and it's time for Kit to redeploy, neither Kit nor Jessa are ready to say goodbye. Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for.

Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.

A breathtaking, scorchingly hot story about love, friendship, family and finding your way back from the edge of heartbreak.

From the very start, this book will hook you with unbelievable strength. The prologue just nearly killed me with curiosity. It swallowed me whole. Why, Sarah, why the torture from the very beginning? I was tempted to scan the pages to see what happens and I was struggling not to. (Thank God I resisted the temptation.) If the opening chapter didn’t hook you right off then I don’t know what will.

The characters in this novel were very believable. Each and every individual has their own story and uniqueness to them. The dual POV (Point of view) was perfect for the story. I liked all the characters here. Riley was the coolest brother I’ve read so far. I wish my brother gives me gifts like the one Riley gives Jessa. Didi was a much needed friend for Jessa. Kit and Riley’s dad was just as interesting. They weren’t the best parents but they had a big impact with how the story progresses. A conflict revolves around these families that will be revealed after some time. All of the characters went through change.

I’m not sure it’s on the right genre though. LOL. It was bordering adult fiction with how hot and steamy the scenes were (In a very good way). I thought they would both combust on how high the sexual tension was between Kit and Jessa. Thank goodness Kit is a perfect gentleman and that his love for Jessa didn't waver.

The story wasn’t in a hurry, which I loved. The characters had their time to settle on their feelings and just think things over. It didn’t feel rushed. Also, the title fits the novel perfectly. I understood why that was the title. It wasn’t full of what ifs or what could’ve been because the characters didn’t regret their present situation. It was nice that it included an epilogue. It’s a story that teaches that love isn’t once in a lifetime, that you can find another love in this world eventually.

COME BACK TO ME is the perfect blend of steamy romance, unbreakable friendship and family drama. Well, maybe it has a whole lot more sizzling hot romance in it. So for NA and Adult readers, this is a perfect read for you!

“You’ve been waiting in the bushes for half an hour just to speak to me?' Kit shrugs. 'I’ve done sniper training. I can sit for hours in the dark, waiting and watching.'
'That’s comforting.' I say, 'And not creepy in the slightest.”

"Do you come here often?' I ask. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I cringe. Way to go, Kit. Make it sound like you’re trying to pick him up, why don’t you?"

“..the best things in life are things you have to fight for.”

Mila Gray is the pen name for Sarah Alderson, author of Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, The Sound, Fated and Out of Control. 

Originally from London she has lived in Bali for the last four years with her husband and daughter. 

As well as writing young adult fiction under the name Sarah Alderson and adult fiction under the name Mila Gray, she also writes screenplays.

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