Bully by Penelope Douglas (Fall Away #1)

My name is Tate. He doesn’t call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all. No, he’ll barely even speak to me.

But he still won’t leave me alone.

We were best friends once. Then he turned on me and made it his mission to ruin my life. I’ve been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to stay out of his way. I even went to France for a year, just to avoid him.

But I’m done hiding from him now, and there’s no way in hell I’ll allow him to ruin my senior year. He might not have changed, but I have. It’s time to fight back.

I’m not going to let him bully me anymore.

***This novel contains adult/mature young adult situations. It is only suitable for ages 18+ due to language, violence, and sexual situations. —Goodreads

I know its been a while and well I am just getting back into the swing of things with reviewing but this book..was amazing. I kinda loved and hated Jared so much for everything that happened with Tate. There wasn’t much about this book that didn’t just hook me.

Even though Jared could be a HUGE ass to Tate, he definitely had his moments and his reasons. Okay so his reasons were completely understandable but not at the same time. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t do similar stuff at his age. Their relationship throughout the book grew into something amazing.

I especially love how Tate is big into racing and cars. Not many girls are depicted that way in books, actually in all the books I have read I think she may be the only one that I have read like that. I enjoyed her friendships and relationship with her dad, she is definitely loyal.

I remember I picked this book out based on a whim and figured I would give it a shot and I can tell you I was not disappointed in it at all. I have actually re-read this book I believe I am on my 4th time 🙂 I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I gave this book:

Shudder by Samantha Durante (Stitch Trilogy #2)

— Book 2 in the Stitch Trilogy —

It’s only been three days, and already everything is different.

Paragon is behind her, but somehow Alessa’s life may actually have gotten worse. In a wrenching twist of fate, she traded the safety and companionship of her sister for that of her true love, losing a vital partner she’d counted on for the ordeal ahead. Her comfortable university life is but a distant memory, as she faces the prospect of surviving a bleak winter on the meager remains of a ravaged world. And if she’d thought she’d tasted fear upon seeing a ghost, she was wrong; now she’s discovering new depths of terror while being hunted by a deadly virus and a terrifying pack of superhuman creatures thirsting for blood.

And then there are the visions.

The memory-altering “stitch” unlocked something in Alessa’s mind, and now she can’t shake the constant flood of alien feelings ransacking her emotions. Haunting memories of an old flame are driving a deep and painful rift into her once-secure relationship. And a series of staggering revelations about the treacherous Engineers – and the bone-chilling deceit shrouding her world’s sorry history – will soon leave Alessa reeling…

The second installment in the electrifying Stitch Trilogy, Shudder follows Samantha Durante’s shocking and innovative debut with a heart-pounding, paranormal-dusted dystopian adventure sure to keep the pages turning.–Goodreads

Wow, this book just blew my mind. I just finished reading it and the last page of the book was amazing and horrible all at the same time. There were moments throughout the book that I kinda wanted to smack Alessa upside the head and tell her she was wasting a perfectly amazing relationship with Isaac by what if’ing everything. But lets start from the beginning.

This book is done in multiple people’s POV, I loved that. You got to see behind the Engineers thought processes, through Regina’s, Nikhail’s, Phoenix, and of course Isaac and Alessa. The book started immediately up too, so there was no large time gap. Which I really appreciate and like in a book. This time around though Alessa and Isaac are out of Paragon and are looking for shelter for the Rebels per orders from Regina. Everyone else is just trying to stay hidden in Paragon or surviving in Paragon.

While searching, Alessa and Isaac are being tracked by what you don’t find out until the very end of this book. I will definitely not be telling you what they are though so you should read the book and take a guess until you get to the answer from the book. They manage to eventually find shelter and head back to Paragon.

A lot happens to them  as a couple and as individuals.  I am glad that Alessa was able to get over what had been bothering her the whole time and that she finally goes all in with Isaac. I love that Isaac knows that something is wrong with her but instead of freaking out on her, he waits till she gives him the answers to what is wrong. Their relationship is amazing and strong, I hope it stays that way.

I don’t want to give too much away because the book is definitely a buy even though I received it as an ARC from Samantha. I recommend everyone to read this book and the first in the trilogy Stitch.

RATING:

Friends and Lovers Trilogy by Bethany Lopez

Title: Friends & Lovers Trilogy: Make it Last, I Choose You, Trust in Me.

Author: Bethany Lopez

Release date: ?

Genre: Contemporary Romance – novella series

Age Group: New Adult

Event organized by:AToMR Tours

Book Description:

Make it Last:

In a small town, it’s hard to recover from being dumped by your high school sweetheart. That’s just what Briana has to do after Colin leaves her to follow his dreams. She focuses her energy into her friendships and the pursuit of her own goal of becoming a chef. Just when she finally feels like she’s on the right path, he comes back to town.

Colin knew breaking up with Briana before leaving for college was the right thing to do. He was determined to leave small-town life behind forever, and that included his high school girlfriend. But when a sports injury puts him on the sidelines, he’s forced to return home. Seeing Briana again brings back a lot of memories, and Colin wonders if he made the right decision. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he wants her back, and this time, he wants to make it last.

I Choose You:

Up until now, Nicole’s life has been mapped out for her. She’d go to college, marry Jake and become the upstanding minister’s wife. When she leaves that life to begin again in a small town in Texas, she finally has the freedom to live as she chooses. There, she meets Kent, a guy whose charm and passion make it hard to stick to her morals.

Dodging his father’s fists and protecting his twin sister made Kent into the man he is today. He learned by watching his mother stay by his father’s side that it’s better to keep relationships simple. Then he meets Nicole. Her sweet smile and genuine response to him land like punches to his resolve. After a lifetime of learning to protect his heart, can he finally let down his guard?

Trust in Me: Will send once it’s complete

Here is all of the information for Trust in Me, book 3 in the Friends & Lovers Trilogy:

 

Purchase Links:

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trust-in-me-bethany-lopez/1114511772?ean=2940016196398

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFFDEKW

Now I read all 3 of these novellas in 1 day, and I loved every second of them. Each relationship was different and you never really knew what was going to happen from one book to the next. Each book you learned more about the friends that were in the last book.

In Make It Last, we got to read about Bree and Colin’s relationship. How even after 5 years of not being together, they still wanted each other just as much as they did in high school. We also meet Kara and Pete, Roni and Kent, Nicole and Rich. Kara and Bree have been friends since high school right after Colin graduated and work together. I loved how you could see that no matter what happened Colin wanted her back in his life.

Of course something happens that blows them out of the water but apparently the ex of Colin’s didn’t care about the issue and just wanted to get it fixed ASAP. Which was a little sad but I guess better for them in the long run. The book was short, hence it being a novella but worth the read.

In I Choose You, you get to see the beginning of Nicole and Kent’s relationship. Which is very sweet except that Kent does not think he is good enough for her. Which was stupid, Kent was dating but not dating Bree in Make It Last and Nicole was the hostess at the same restaurant. Luckily Kent started to think better and realized he was a jerk to Nicole before they started dating.

This time around it was more about Kent realizing that he was an amazing man that did a ton of things for his sister growing up and continued to do so as an adult. Nicole just needed to let go so that they could be together. I thought their relationship was great because they grew together.

In Trust In Me, we finally get to find out what happened to Roni and why she treated Rich the way she does. After finding out what happened to her, I can completely understand why she did. I mean I probably would have done the same thing. Not even kidding. And Rich, he just never gave up. I loved that about him. You can’t dislike someone that knows what they want and works hard for it.

In this novella, we get to see everyone’s dreams come true, Bree’s cooking, Kent’s journalism, Rich’s place for kids to play sports, Roni’s dance studio. It was almost bittersweet at the end of this book. I was happy everyone got the happily ever after but I was sad to see them go.

I gave all 3 books 4 stars.

About the Author

Bethany Lopez was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Michigan and San Antonio, Texas. She went to High School at Dearborn High, in Dearborn, Michigan, which is where she has set her Young Adult series. She is married and has a blended family with five children. She is currently serving in the United States Air Force as a Recruiter in Los Angeles, California. She has always loved to read and write and has seen her dream realized by independently publishing her novels through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Author social media links:

IAN – http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/bethany-lopez.html

Webpage – www.bethanylopez.blogspot.com

Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/BethanyLopez2

Facebook – http://on.fb.me/LypEaO

Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/bethanylopez2/

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

When “Perfect” Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter’s High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher’s pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?

Parker doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her conselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there’s a nice guy falling in love with her and he’s making her feel things again when she’d really rather not be feeling anything at all.

Nobody would have guessed she’d turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.

Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

This was definitely one of those books that I expected more from. The synopsis sounded very interesting and I found that I wanted Parker to learn to live with herself and to be a better person. I was really rooting for her to get her stuff together.

I understand that something horrible happened the year before. It helped with the flashbacks that showed the reader (me) that Parker wasn’t always such a trainwreck and that at one point she did have her life together and a guy that really loved her. I found that I wanted to yell and scream at Parker to deal with her issues instead of hiding in a bottle all the time. I really loved the flashbacks and who they were written out.

I honestly felt bad from Jake even though he did it to himself. I mean who goes around falling for the girl that basically tells you flat out that she is completely messed up and doesn’t want to deal with you or life anymore. I loved how even though he had no idea what happened to Parker he was still willing to try and break down her walls that she put up around herself and everyone else.

I can honestly say that I really had no idea how this ending was going to be because everything I thought was going to happen didn’t happen. So I did like the ending quite a bit, I just couldn’t relate with the characters too much. Okay mainly Parker. I would definitely recommend the book if you want something that deals with drinking and handling the emotional up’s and down’s of being a teenager when something horrible happens in their lives.

RATING:

Slammed by Colleen Hoover (Slammed #1)

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she’s losing hope.
Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.
Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart. From Goodreads.
I bought this book back in January and waited until FOREVER to read it. I know I must have been out of my mind. I am sure the hair dye must have made me crazy for a few months until I read this amazing book by Colleen Hoover. Trust me I thought I must have been insane to wait to read this amazing book. I get tired at times of the paranormal YA and I really enjoy the contemporary YA at times. This trilogy in whole is my number 3 in top 5 YA/New Adult contemporaries. Number 1 belongs to Jamie McGuire for her Beautiful Disaster and Number 2 is for Molly McAdams Taking Chances. So it just shows you Colleen is in great company.

The book starts out with Laykin and her whole family (her mom and little brother) moving across country because her dad passed away and they were told that they needed to sell the house to survive. Once there she meets Will and his little brother. And all is good and well, they hit it off and everything seems great. Except that Laykin is still in high school, yea she’s 18 though but that doesn’t help what eventually ends up happening.

There were so many moments that I cried over because honestly I don’t know if I could be strong enough to do what Laykin or even Will had to do. Will had a ton of responsibilities but knew that no matter how hard he fought he was falling madly in love with Laykin which was great because they were perfect for each other. Except because of one of the MANY twists in the book.

One of the greatest parts of this book was that the characters felt real, they had their issues and weren’t close to perfect. They lied, hid secrets from each other, tried protecting each other, loved each other. I could literally see the characters together in my head more so than a lot of other book characters. They seemed so real thanks to Colleen’s amazing writing.

I don’t want to give too much away because honestly you should have bought this book and read it. Don’t wait months like I did. Just do it already. It is definitely worth it. Every second of the whole book.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Empty Net by Toni Aleo (Assassins #3)

Definition of an Empty Net: When a team pulls the goalie for an extra attacker, desperately seeking a goal.

Audrey Parker was in a horrible place.
She hated her job, her sister was getting married and moving out, but worst of all, she was in love with a total jerk. No matter what she did, every guy she met hurt her. All she wanted was her happily ever after. Her Prince Charming. Her Lucas Brooks! She didn’t know how to change her life but she knew she needed too.
Feeling like she was about to hit rock bottom, Audrey wakes up next to Tate Odder.

Tate Odder had lost everything.
After being brought up from the Assassins’ farm team, the Florida Rays to the Nashville Assassins, Tate hopes he’ll forget everything he has lost. He doesn’t. Each day gets harder to live in a place he doesn’t know. Even being the first rookie goalie to shut out an opposing team three times during the Lord Stanley Cup Finals, he still felt empty. With the loss of his parents and sister still heavy on his heart, Tate isn’t sure how to live like everything is okay.

But when he wakes up beside Audrey Parker, things start to change. She turns his life upside down with her kooky sense of humor and her bright clothing. She is intelligent and beautiful, and for once, he doesn’t feel empty.
Will Audrey be the person to fill the holes in Tate’s heart, making him whole again?
Or will another player ruin everything, leaving him feeling forever like an empty net? From Goodreads.

Oh my god, she did it again!!! There isn’t a book of Toni’s that I haven’t fallen in love with. I am so happy I gave her books a chance. This time around it was Tate and Audrey’s story. Now I loved Audrey in the last book and I thought Tate sounded adorable. I also wanted to smack the crap out of her for dating and putting up with Levi. She is way, way too good for him.

Luckily she got drunk and hooked up with Tate. Of course, she was stupid and decided to leave the next morning with out exchanging any kind of info. She eventually figures out who he is. I mean it was bound to happen since Tate is Lucas’ best friend. It also didn’t help that he was also her neighbor!

Now do you see why I love Toni? Her books are so amazing that they are, as of right now, the only adult books I have reviewed on my blog. But I felt that everyone should go out and buy all 3 books right now. There was so much to their relationship, her issue with his age, his family, her background, her physical and emotional issues. I was sooo happy that eventually everything came out and they were in a happy committed relationship together.

Eventually Audrey was given AMAZING news and when she got home to get ready to tell Tate about it, she ran into Levi and things went downhill from there. I won’t give anything away about what happens between the 3 of them because it was crazy horrible and awesome all at the same time.

I can’t wait for the 4th book in the series just so I can reread these books.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Deep Blue Secret by Christie Anderson (The Water Keepers #1)

Deep Blue Secret by Christie Anderson (The Water Keepers #1)

California teen Sadie James thinks her life couldn’t get any better. She has great friends, an energetic mother she adores, and the beach practically in her own backyard. But her carefree life is turned upside down when she’s rescued by a mysterious and strangely familiar boy who won’t even tell her his name. Each time the boy appears, Sadie’s unexplainable attraction to him deepens along with her need to unravel his secrets. The boy is there to protect her, but as wonderful and exciting as it might be to have an irresistible boy with crystal green eyes protecting her every move, every minute of the day…why does Sadie need one? As Sadie finds answers, she realizes her life isn’t as perfect as she thought. Not only is she caught in a world of dangerous secret agents she never knew existed, but it turns out her true identity may be the greatest secret of all. From Goodreads.

This book started off very strangely, I wasn’t sure if they were aliens or from another dimension. I am still not completely sure. I guess I am going to have to read the second book to fully understand what they happen to be.

Sadie seemed like a great girl, she falls in love with someone that she didn’t realize she knew. Okay she had no idea who he was but he has been in her life almost her entire life. Recently she starts going through bouts of depression which scare her. I mean if it was that bad, I would be scared too, although I would also tell my parents. After a mistake and a near drowning, she is saved by Rayne and they hit it off.

Rayne seemed like a great guy, he finds out that Sadie needs more “water” from where they are from and that her dad is like him but her mom is a regular. It was very complicated about what happened with her dad, of course finding out why Rayne has only this one job and who Sadie’s dad is was quite shocking.

The story had a bad guy who used his son to kidnap Sadie and almost kill her due to not getting any of that “water”. His son, Ash didn’t seem like a bad guy but you never know what is going to happen in the second book, which I will read to find out what just happens. Also to see where Sadie and Rayne end up as a couple, and if I actually find out what they are.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars even though I was confused, the story was great.