Monday, September 30, 2013

Review! Secrets of a Hart by Elizabeth James











Five years ago, Kendall Hart’s life changed forever. A tragedy forced her to grow up fast and become a responsible adult overnight while her friends were still enjoying high school. She lives and breathes work leaving no time for a social life and her circle of friends is small. She has no room for complications in her life…then Tristan walks in.

Tristan O’Neal is forced to return home when his father becomes terminally ill. Taking care of his parents, dealing with an irresponsible brother, and starting a new job bring challenges to his life. Starting a relationship is the last thing on his mind but when sees Kendall, he finds himself drawn to her...she is so familiar. 

Tristan is what Kendall has always wanted but life isn’t always fair. Sometimes you have to let go of the one person you’ve always loved in order to protect them. Will Tristan be able to break through the wall she’s built around her heart or will Kendall’s secrets consume her and destroy their chance at a life together?
 


  Becky Says:

Well.. I have simmered on this book for over a week now. I love Elizabeth James and in Secrets of A Hart, she did not disappoint.

I started this book around 8pm and could not stop. I finished it around 7am lol.. I instantly fell in love with Kendall. She is broken and bruised. She just wants her happily ever after.

Tristan comes back to town to help with his ailing father. He had an instant attraction to Kendall.
 "I was feeling a connection with her that I'd never felt before with anyone."~ Tristan 
After enlisting the help of her best friend Averi, he was on a mission to make her see he was just a guy that deserved a chance. Kendall tried but she couldn't resist his charms after all, she had secretly loved him since the ninth grade. She always felt she was never good enough for the guy that had it all. But now she finds it hard to resist his charms.
 "I was in awe of the skill with which he handled the bike and the way his biceps flexed every time he accelerated the bike." ~Kendall 

Together they confront the ghosts in her closet and that ghost is named Sebastian.

I give this book 5 fan-freaking-tastic stars because it grabbed me at page one and I held me all the way through!! I want a real life Tristan!!

 




Elizabeth James is the author of the Design Series. She writes contemporary romance set in her native North Carolina. A life-long reader, she began writing a novel at age fifteen, put it away with no hopes of publication, but now has realized her dream as an adult. Inspired by several bestselling authors she began working as a beta reader and her passion for writing once again surfaced. She embarked on a journey to see if she could complete a novel and Love by Design was born. With warm reception to her first novel she is now making this crazy world a part of her life. Elizabeth believes you're never too late in life to realize your dreams and this has opened up a new world of adventures and meeting new people which she loves to do. Elizabeth lives in North Carolina with her husband and their dogs. She enjoys traveling, exploring North Carolina, and spending time with her friends.






 

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Spotlight! Templand and Permland by Elaine Hughes








Templand Blurb:

The heroine, Melanie Evers, is a plucky young working-class woman from Akron, Ohio struggling to support herself in Chicago in the post-9-11 economy. TEMPLAND follows Melanie's journey through the temporary employment world from a college student on "just a summer job" to a 28-year-old woman with a lot of intelligence (and a heap of student loan debt to match) through multiple layoffs and a series of ever-more-wacky temp assignments, as she struggles not only to survive, but also to find romance and always remain true to the honest, working-class values instilled in her by her beloved grandfather. In her long, solitary journey through Templand, Melanie encounters adventure and romance on her search for that always-elusive Permanent Job---which she finally gets, along with her man. TEMPLAND is a highly entertaining, wickedly funny social satire, contemporary romance, and mystery novel all rolled into one.








Permland Blurb:

SEQUEL TO TEMPLAND. It’s the beginning of 2003, a few months after the end of TEMPLAND. Melanie Evers is back as she struggles under the insane demands of her long-sought Permanent Job.  Now a human resources executive at Marquette Bank, what started out as a cushy well-paid job turns into a nightmare when her company is bought out by a Dutch conglomerate.  Melanie gets sent on a new series of wacky adventures as she tries to keep her head above water while her crazy new boss Pietra controls her every move, the Iraq War begins, and her boyfriend Dave is called up by the Army reserves to fight overseas. Is permanent employment really all it’s cracked up to be?







Promo: Rose of Thorne by Mia Michelle






Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Smashwords


When a drunk driver tragically orphans Skylar Rose at the age of sixteen, she leaves her dreams behind and takes on the daunting task of helping her elderly grandmother raise her young sister. While other girls her age were living a typical carefree life, she was picking up double shifts at a local cafĂ© and struggling to pay the bills. 

Always putting her sister’s needs and school first, Skylar has never had time to date or develop relationships. Now a senior in college, she has her sights set on an amazing internship opportunity. The last thing she needed was for a sexy distraction like Sebastian Thorne to walk into her life. 

Sebastian Thorne had been an entitled and reckless nineteen year old when he got behind the wheel of his new sports car that night. When his night of indulgence goes tragically wrong, Sebastian hesitantly turns to the one person, he knows can make everything go away…the one person he hates ..his father.

Now twenty-six, Sebastian is the young enigmatic and powerful CEO of his late father’s design company, Thorne Enterprises. With both millions in the bank and a new woman on his arm almost every night, the world never knew the dark secret he carried inside. Still plagued with nightmares from the night of that horrific accident and having to leave the beautiful girl behind, Sebastian vows to find the one that haunts his dreams. Sometimes the choice of revisiting our past opens the door to a future that we never thought possible.

Haunted by their past, these two want nothing more than to have their life given back to them. But what do you do when the person who gave you back your life, was the very one that took it from you in the first place?

* BOOK 2 THORNELESS will follow VERY VERY SOON!! Contains sexual content and abusive situations. Recommended for readers 18+ years.


  






Mia fell in love with the literary world at a very young age and began putting her active imagination to pen and paper by the age of six. Over the years, she has filled up numerous shelves with her notebooks and journals of her favorite stories. Twelve years ago, Mia began drafting The Thorne Series and through encouragement of a close friend, decided to finally take the leap of faith to bring her dream to life. She openly admits to having a hopeless infatuation with her Kindle and suffers from the one-click book addiction (No intervention required). 

Mia is currently a stay at home mom who has mastered the fine art of making a PB&J sandwich in between laundry and shuttling kids to ballet and swimming. In her spare time (“What spare time?” She laughs), she enjoys photography, traveling, and having a girls night out with her pals. She enjoys the simple things in life, such as sleeping more than 3 hours per night and 10 minute showers without being interrupted by children yelling “mommy” from the other side of the bathroom door. 

Mia Michelle resides in Tennessee with her soul mate and husband of 18 years and their 2 beautiful young children. She is currently working on her Masters in Counseling and drafting her new series. 




Saturday, September 28, 2013

Review: Skipping Stones by JB McGee





They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.

Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?

Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.

When faced with her world being turned upside down, Alex may just find that her true therapy is in the one who has always saved her.  


Jenn says:
 
I adored this book and believe it or not I am having trouble writing this review because I want to do justice to the book!  Its an amazing story of heartbreak, love, and fate that makes you look at life a little different.  This is truly one of those books that pulls at your heart strings and will stay with you love after you have read it. 

We start the book with Alex spending her summer vacation with her grandparents in South Carolina.  Being a Cali girl myself I love the southern references.  I think I was a southern belle in a past life or something because I love it! But anyways…  Soon after the books start tragedy strikes and from the beginning my heart is ripped out of my chest.   Alex has to deal with death and loss at such a young age of 15.  She finds herself at the lake down the road from her grandparents’ property where she meets Drew.  He’s a little older and not someone she has seen around the town before.  When they meet, he is able to help her get through her heartbreak and makes life more bearable.  He is able to fill the void of in heart that was missing. 
“While I don’t know much, I do know he’s been the only person able to get me to feel like I’m not connected to a lead ball that is sinking into the ocean., thousands of miles beneath the surface.  He’s been the air my lungs can’t seem to find in the any other way or place.”
But just as quickly as him coming into her life, he is gone.   It’s like he never existed.  Nobody knows him and nobody knows where he or his family went.  If it wasn't for the deep connection that they shared she would have thought she dreamed him.   Even though their time was short lived, she knows he was the one who will always hold her heart.
Years go by and Alex cannot let go of finding Drew.  She is determined to find him but there are always dead ends.  Because of events that happened when she was younger, she decides to become a doctor but also enrolls in the Army to help with the costs of college.  Then 9/11 happens… She is shipped overseas and in a brief second before an explosion, she sees her lost love again.   While recovery she asked everyone about Drew if he was there.  Again, no one knows who he is. It’s like he doesn't exist. 
 “I have come to the conclusion that fate has a way of beating karma.”
When she returns home to the states and to South Carolina, Alex is again forced to deal with death and heartbreak.  But this time, she sees and feels him and knows that he was not just a dream.  It seems fate keeps bringing Drew to her when she needs him the most.  When he comes back to her, he has his own secrets that demons that he has be dealing with.  Just as Alex has had to lead a life that was filed with heartbreak and love lost so has Drew.  Will Alex and Drew be able to work past their years of being apart and finally have the life together that Alex has dreamed of since she first met him. 
“Someone wise once told me that when I found a girl who made me want to love her for always and in all ways, I’d find the one.”
This is a story that takes us through the stages of life and Alex’s journey to find her true love and happiness.   I so loved this story and give it the maximum amount of stars allowed!  If you are looking for a wonderful book that pulls at your heart strings, makes you feel like you cannot breathe, but then reduces you to a crying mess that you have found the book for you!  Of course I love all those things so I absolutely loved it!!  I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone!  It's truly a MUST read! 


A Note from J.B. McGee 

J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all-girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001 and she moved back to her home town. 

In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children's literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.

In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, the found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.
J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children's medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot. Broken (This Series), is her first book and first series. 


Spotlight: Every Enough Series by Stacy Borel

Ever Enough Series 
Stacy Borel

♥ Ever Enough ♥

What happens when the man you thought was the one, ends up being the one that got away? When Finley breaks her heart on graduation night, eighteen year old Emilyn is left alone to pick up the pieces of her life. After muddling through the next ten years-including immersing herself in a lifeless marriage-she is brought to her knees when she encounters Finley at her high school reunion. Long ago buried emotions and feelings bubble to the surface and when Finley kisses her, Emilyn flees the scene. Arriving home to find her husband in the arms of another woman, Emilyn is forced to return to her hometown and start again. But is it possible to start afresh when the past just won’t seem to let you go? Finley has spent the ten years since high school focused on his career. As a songwriter, he has never had a problem getting women. But when he realizes that the woman he let go a decade ago could be his happy ever after, he decides to do whatever it takes to get her back. But are some hurdles too great to overcome?
 

Playlist



  • First Kiss- A Rocket To the Moon

  • Ever Enough- A Rocket To the Moon
  • Turning Tables- Adele.
     Don’t You Remember- Adele
     One and Only- Adele

  •  Your Guardian Angel- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus 
  •  All the Same- Sick Puppies 
  •  Hello- Evanescence 
  •  Broken- Seether 
  •  Never- Heart
  •  Alone- Heart 
  •  Haunted- Taylor Swift 
  •  Save You- Simple Plan 
  • Weightless- All Time Low 
  •  Break Your Little Heart- All Time Low 
  •  Sick Little Games- All Time Low 
  • Straightjacket Feeling- The All-American Rejects 
  • Slipped Away- Avril Lavigne 
  • No Love- Simple Plan 
  •  Heart of Stone- Iko 
  •  Find Me- Boyce Avenue 
  •  Innocence- Avril Lavigne
  •  Feelin’ Love- Paula Cole 
  •  Stars- Grace Potter and the Nocturnals 
  •  Almost Lover-A Fine Frenzy 
  •  Near To You- A Fine Frenzy 
  •  Just A Fool- Christina Aguilera & Blake Shelton 
  •  Faded Away- Luke Bryan 
  •  Come Undone- My Darkest Days 
  •  Between the Raindrops- Lifehouse 
  •  I’m Just A Man- Jason Aldean
  •  I Lost It- Kenny Chesney
  •  Settle For a Slowdown- Dierks Bentley 
  •  Please Remember Me- Tim McGraw
  •  First To Fall- Terri Clark
  •  Don’t Leave Home- Dido 
  •  Thinking of You- Katy Perry 
  •  Makin’ Plans- Miranda Lambert 
  •  Sweet Nothing- Calvin Harris
  •  Perfect- My Darkest Days 
  •  Radioactive-Imagine Dragons 
  •  Can’t Forget You- My Darkest Days 
  •  These Days- Rascal Flatts 
  •  I’m Moving On- Rascal Flatts 
  •  Wherever You Will Go- Charlene Soraia 
  •  The Story- Brandi Carlile 
  •  She Wolf- David Guetta

  • ♥ Always Enough
     
    “There is nothing worse than pretending that you don’t care about something, when that is all you can think about.”
    Harper Graham wears a mask, and not the pamper kind. She conceals her pain with shoes, shots, and lots of sex. But while her life appears fantastic to most, Harper herself knows that the most important thing in life is not financial stability, but emotional. Having been let down by her absent father for most of her life, Harper chooses to keep the men in her life at arms length. Well, that was until Kyler Morgan. Kyler Morgan has been successful at nearly everything in his life … nearly. Traveling the country with the band Down Glory Road, Kyler has had time to reflect upon his life and in particular his relationship with feisty, drop-dead gorgeous realtor, Harper. Realizing that she is the woman of his dreams, Kyler resolves to win back Harper, and prove to her that she is, and always has been, enough. But the path to true love rarely runs smoothly, and when their journey takes a number of twists and turns, will Harper and Kyler manage to hold tight, or fall by the wayside?


    Playlist


  • Another Heart Calls- The All-American Rejects-

  • I Can’t Make You Love Me- Bonnie Raitt
  • The High Road- Three Days Grace
  • My Songs Know what You Did- Fall Out Boy
  • Touch- Josh Abbott Band
  • Easy- Rascal Flatts
  • Falling Slowly- Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
  • The Great Escape- Pink
  • Just Give Me a Reason- Pink
  • Have A Little Faith In Me
  • Ignition- Matt Stillwell
  • Daylight- Maroon 5
  • Crash My Party- Luke Bryan
  • Pour Some Sugar On Me- Def Leopard
  • Distance- Christina Perri
  • Two Is Better Than One- Boys Like Girls
  • I Can’t Love You Back- Easton Corbin
  • Wasting All These Tears- Cassaee Pope
  • How She Rolls- Chase Rice
  • Goodbye- Secondhand Serenade
  • I Will Remember You- Ryan Cabrera
  • 36 Days- Hawk Nelson
  • Breathe Me- Sia



  • Stacy Borel lives in southeast Texas with
    her huband, two kids, and two dogs. She is a military wife, and prior to that,
    was a military brat. She loves picking up and moving somewhere new every two to
    four years. Stacy is a self-proclaimed Facebook addict. If she isn't online, she
    is either writing or being a mom or wife.

    Next novel: Touching Scars, coming the first week of December 2013.