2 Book Lovers Reviews
New Release!
The Shack
By William Paul Young
June 27th, 2017
This week's list of new releases
is posted below. I already
have two new releases that I
highly recommend. If you
want to read a couple of books
that will make you feel every
single emotion, scroll down to
read my spoiler-free reviews.
Until It Fades is contemporary
romance at its finest. It
captured my full attention at
the very beginning and kept
me completely engrossed until
the final page. With characters
that I immediately cared about,
a story that is rich with emotion, and a romance that will make even the most hardened hearts believe in love, Until It Fades is a perfect, well-rounded romance that just hit all the marks.
Living in a small community, you can expect that everyone is going to know your business – your triumphs, downfalls, and your misfortunes. Unfortunately, once you’ve made a reputation for yourself in a small town, it’s nearly impossible to shake it. Catherine has experienced her share of difficult times in her twenty-four years. She made some poor choices in her teenage years. She did things that, looking back now, she regrets. Despite her attempts to move forward with her life, she still feels the judgment, hears the whispers, and sees the sneers from the locals.
One thing is for certain, I won’t be forgetting this book in the near future. Forgetting You, Forgetting Me wreaked havoc on my emotions. With every turn of the page, I felt as
though I was living through the story right alongside Lucy.
This isn’t an easy love story. It’s tumultuous, difficult, heart-
wrenching, and gutting, in other words, it was exactly what I was hoping for.
Lucy Tucker’s life was changed in the blink of an eye. The future that she had envisioned with her fiancé was ripped from her on what should have been the happiest day of their lives. I felt her loss, devastation, and heartache. Every emotion that she felt was palpable and raw. Her new reality may have been painful to witness, but despite the number of times that my heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach, I was completely committed and invested in her story.
New Releases!
- The Substitute – By Nicole Lundrigan – Thriller!
Warren Botts is a disillusioned Ph.D., taking a break from his lab to teach middle-school science. Gentle, soft-spoken, and lonely, he innocently befriends Amanda, one of his students. But one morning, Amanda is found dead in his backyard, and Warren, shocked, flees the scene.
As the small community slowly turns against him, an anonymous narrator, a person of extreme intelligence and emotional detachment, offers insight into events past and present. As the tension builds, we gain an intimate understanding of the power of secrets, illusions, and memories. Read Greg's review!
- Forgetting You, Forgetting Me (Memories from Yesterday #1) – By Monica James - Top Recommendation! Read my review!
My name is Lucy Tucker, and my life…it was perfect.
I worked the dream job. I had the most incredible family and friends. My home, Whispering Willows, a ranch in Montana, was everything I could ever wish for. My adoring fiancé, Samuel Stone, loved me unconditionally.
I had everything a girl could ever want.
But one fateful event shattered my perfect life. It’s unimaginable how simple, ordinary words can change a person’s life forever. For me those words were, “There’s been an accident.”
I thought Sam was my forever, but that forever came to a close the day Saxon Stone, Sam’s identical twin brother, came back. Saxon returned to Montana to help save Sam, however, the moment he entered my life, he turned my world upside down. But through chaos I somehow found clarity—clarity of who I was meant to be.
As time progressed, as seasons changed, and as a fire began to burn, I soon realized that Saxon was there for another reason…he was there to help save me.
- Heartbreaker (Hollywood Hearts #2) – By Belinda Williams
- Tied (Devils Wolves #2) – By Carian Cole
- Where I Belong (The Debt #2) – By M. O’Keefe
- Persephone – By Kitty Thomas
- Until It Fades: A Novel – By K.A. Tucker - Top Recommendation! Read my review!
Twenty-four-year-old truck stop waitress and single mother Catherine Wright has simple goals: to give her five-year-old daughter a happy life and to never again be the talk of the town in Balsam, Pennsylvania (population three thousand outside of tourist season).
And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed date, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has rescued: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.
Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works. For a time.
But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. There’s an immediate connection, and it’s more electric than the bond of two people who endured a traumatic event. It’s something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something she is afraid to trust.
Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine...before the spark fades?
- The Impossible Vastness of Us – By Samantha Young – YA!
India Maxwell hasn't just moved across the country—she's plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It's taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she's living in one of Boston's wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom's fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister's clique of friends, including Eloise's gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend, Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash.
But India's not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school's golden couple, aren't all they seem to be. In fact, everyone's life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what's left are truths that are brutal, beautiful and big enough to change them forever…
- Make Me Stay (The Panic Series) – By Sidney Halston - Second chance romance!
- All There Is (Juniper Hills #1) – By Violet Duke
- Every Last Lie – By Mary Kubica - Thriller!
Clara Solberg's world shatters when her husband and their four-year-old daughter are in a car crash, killing Nick while Maisie is remarkably unharmed. The crash is ruled an accident…until the coming days, when Maisie starts having night terrors that make Clara question what really happened on that fateful afternoon.
Tormented by grief and her obsession that Nick's death was far more than just an accident, Clara is plunged into a desperate hunt for the truth. Who would have wanted Nick dead? And, more important, why? Clara will stop at nothing to find out—and the truth is only the beginning of this twisted tale of secrets and deceit.
- The King – By Skye Warren – Spin-off of the Endgame series!
- Raw Need (Larson Brothers) – By Cherie Lynn - Rock star romance!
- Dr. ER (St. Luke’s Docuseries #2) – By Max Monroe – Romantic comedy! Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.
- Mr. Rich – By Virna DePaul
She finds a wallet (not a shoe), and he’s a billionaire (not a prince), but this time, Cinderella’s turning the tables. . . .
- The Legend: A Sons of Texas Novel – By Donna Grant - Romantic suspense!
- Easy Nights (The Boudreaux Series #6) – By Kristen Proby – Final book in the series!
- Damaged Like Us (Like Us #1) – By Krista & Becca Ritchie - M/M romance! Don’t date your bodyguard.
It was the one rule he had to break.
- Something Beautiful – By Amanda Gernentz Hanson – YA! M/M romance!
- Prom Queen (A Bad Boy Homecoming Romance #3) – By Katee Robert
- Luca (Ruin & Revenge #2) – By Sarah Castille – Romantic suspense!
- Path of Thieves - By Sunniva Dee
Football hero by day and thief by night, Charles “Cugs” McConnely leads a double life in the small town of Newbark, Florida. At sundown, the seventeen-year-old turns burglar, forced into the business by the man who should be teaching him the difference between right and wrong: his father.
Cugs is a pro at both games, but only one can secure him a college scholarship. It should be an easy decision, a no-brainer—if Newbark hadn't proffered the only life he knows.
After run-ins with Nadine Paganelli, his accidental victim and the sole person to have caught him in the act, Cugs starts to realize that hearts can be stolen too.
When his long-lost sister makes contact, lies are uncovered and truths revealed. Suddenly, Cugs finds himself questioning both plans and loyalties. Sometimes the only way to move forward is by pulling the bottom out of the past.
- June 28 – Absolution – By Missy Johnson - Pre-order for $0.99 cents! Forbidden romance!
Declan James was the perfect guy.
He was sweet. Charming. Caring. Until he wasn’t.
Fourteen years ago, his actions tore apart my family. He ruined my sister’s life and nothing was ever the same again. But now, more than a decade later, he’s back.
When he walks into my office, asking for my help, I’m shocked, but nothing prepares me for what I’m about to learn. I see how far he’s gone to redeem himself and I know that he’s changed. I also know that, as a priest, he’s more off limits than ever.
If I help him, my family will never forgive me.
If I fall in love with him, I will never forgive myself.
- June 29 – The Catch (The Player Duet #2) – By K. Bromberg - Baseball romance! This is the continuation of the story that began in The Player.
- June 30 - The Long Way Home (The One Series #1) - By Jasinda Wilder
I need you, Ava.
I am desperate. For you. For touch. For a kiss. For the scrape of your hand down my stomach. For the slide of your lips across my hipbone. The sweep of your thigh against mine in the dulcet, drowning darkness. For the warm huff of your breath on my skin and the wet suck of your mouth around me and the building pressure of need reaching release...I am mad with need.
Wild with it.
I cannot have you. I have lost you, as I have lost myself.
And so I go in search. Of myself, and thus the man who might return to you, and take you in his arms.
I loathe each of the thousands of miles between us, but I cannot wish them away, for I hope at the end of my journey I shall find you. Or rather, find myself, and thus…you. Myself, and thus us.
I am taking the long way home, Ava.
* * *
Christian,
I’m losing my mind, and I don’t know how to stop it. I shouldn’t be writing to you, but I am. I’m friendless, loveless, and lifeless. You’re out there somewhere, and still you’re all I really have. I hate my reliance and dependence on you, emotionally and otherwise, and that reliance is something I’m coming to recognize. I hate that I can’t hate you as much as I want to. I hate that I still love you so much.
I hate that there’s no clear solution to our conundrum. Even if we could forgive each other, what then?
I hate you, Christian. I really do.
But most of all, I don’t.
It’s complicated.
Complicatedly (still) yours,
Ava
- June 30 - The Director and Don Juan: The Story Sisters #2 - By Katy Regnery
Happy Reading!
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
June 23rd, 2017
I love a great crime/ mystery. Nicole Lundrigan intrigued me with her synopsis, just enough to grab my attention, but not too much as to give the story away. The Substitute certainly did not disappoint. I was pulled into the story and could not escape the web that Lundrigan weaved.
What he's reading!
What she's reading!
Greg's Dailyish Blog
Shelley's Daily Blog
June 16th, 2017
Book Review:
Heart-Shaped Box By Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box sat on my Kindle, unread for far too long. I’ve taken a bit of a shining to Joe Hill’s writing; he writes old school in a newfangled way. His books, the ones that I have read, are all a good length (no one hundred page novellas), complete standalones (there is no book 15 in the series) and definitely unique.
Read my full review...
June 9th, 2017
Book Review:
The Bone Collection By Kathy Reichs
The Bone Collection was a great way for me to be introduced to a new-to-me author. As a rule, I’m not a huge fan of anthologies. I find that the stories are over before they’ve really had a chance to begin. The Bone Collection contains four stories within its 388 pages. It had a bit more meat and potatoes to the stories.
Read my full review...
June 6th, 2017
Summer is that time of year when things tend to slow down a bit, we sit outside, relax, have a few beverages. The kids are out of school, and the extracurricular activities are on a temporary hiatus. It is a fantastic time to read those books that you’ve always wanted to read, but you just haven’t found/made the time. I’ve actually been doing a little bit of that all year long. So, to help inspire your summer reading list, I thought I would share a few of my own, “Why the hell did I wait so long to read this?” books.
Read my list...
June 1st, 2017
Killer of Kings By Matthew Harffy
Book four, I have been following Beobrand’s trail of vengeance now for two years. It is a trail filled with death, destruction and devastation. I have witnessed Beobrand grow from a young “green” warrior into a leader of men.
What I really like about Harffy’s writing is the fact that he keeps it real.
See my full review...
May 30th, 2017
Book Review:
Twisted By Andrew E. Kaufman
Twisted is one of those books that I wanted to read
from the first time I saw it. The title, the cover, the synopsis, Twisted was on my radar! Now, I just had to read it.
Twisted delivered on its promise. It is a twisted tale that grabbed me right from the start. Around every corner, Kaufman drops one WTF moment after another.
See my full review...
May 23rd, 2017
Black Mad Wheel By Josh Malerman
Anyone who has read Bird Box knows that Josh Malerman is capable of reaching inside, grabbing your soul and freaking the hell out of it. Once I saw that he had a new book releasing, I knew that I needed to read it.
Black Mad Wheel played back and forth between two timelines in the protagonist’s life.
See my full review...
May 16th, 2017
Book Review:
The Hanging Girl By Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Hanging Girl is book six in the Department Q series. Department Q is the Danish cold-case division that is headed up by Carl Morck. Perhaps it could be read as a stand-alone, personally, I would recommend reading the series in order so that you can fully appreciate the evolution of the characters.
It has been three years since Carl, Assad and Rose investigated The Marco Effect.
See my full review...
May 4th, 2017
Book Review:
Skitter (The Hatching #2) By Ezekiel Boone
The arachnopocalypse is on! Skitter picks up right where The Hatching left off, read The Hatching first, this is important. You don’t like spiders? Good! Read these books in an old barn, it will add ambience.
It has been a little under a year since I read The Hatching, that’s quite a few books and many lives since I left this world of Ezekiel Boone’s creation.
See my full review...
April 25th, 2017
New Release & Review:
The Last Neanderthal By Claire Cameron
I’ve always enjoyed a good historical book, usually the older the better. With The Last Neanderthal, I’ve gone pre-historic. Claire Cameron’s story bounces back and forth between Girl, our Neanderthal protagonist, and Rosamund Gale, and archaeologist excavating a groundbreaking site.
See my full review...
April 18th, 2017
Book Review:
Security By Gina Wohlsdorf
Ever since I first came across Security, there was something intriguing about the book; it has a “big brother” aspect about it that piqued by interest. I downloaded the sample, something I would recommend, and was captivated and strangely intrigued by the point-of-view from which the story was told.
See my full review...
April 7th, 2017
Book Review:
I'm Thinking of Ending Things By Iain Reid
This is one of those books that you love or hate; and you might not even know why. Iain Reid had me questioning everything throughout the book. What was going on? Is that real? Why. Are. You. Doing. That? Don’t go down the stairs! Okay, that wasn’t a question, but I said it.
See my full review...
See Shelley's review...
April 4th, 2017
Book Review:
Wolves By D.J. Molles
What is the price of vengeance? After reading Wolves, I would have to say that it is your soul.
Every once in a while, I find a book that I connect with on multiple levels - a book that speaks to me, pulls me into the lives of the characters and leaves me craving more. Wolves
is one such book. Many times as I was reading, my wife would ask me, “How is your book?” All I could say in response was, “Dark.”
See my full review...
March 31st, 2017
40,000 years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate.
But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt...
Read more...
March 28th, 2017
Almost Missed You By Jessica Strawser
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. This old expression applies to books, as well as many other things. A great start is key to pulling the reader into the story. If the first chapter doesn’t captivate me, I am easily distracted and it’s damn near impossible to make up for that shortcoming. Almost Missed You had no such issue.
March 24th, 2017
Book Review:
The Emperor's Knives By Anthony Riches
By the time you reach book seven in a series, you should know what to expect. If you didn’t like the previous books, what the hell are you even doing here? With Wounds of Honour, Anthony Riches opened up a whole new world of books for me; one with Roman Legions marching through hordes of blue-nosed barbarians. I have become a huge fan of Riches, as well as a few others in the genre.
See my full review...
March 21st, 2017
New Release:
The Beachhead By Christopher Mari
After Earth is decimated, the entire remaining human population is marooned on an unfamiliar beach. The enigmatic winged Orangemen leave the survivors with instructions to remake their society, basic tools and weapons, and a few thousand books, including Bibles in many languages. As two generations are born and raised,
conflicting theories as to the nature of the apocalypse continue to simmer.
Read more...
March 17th, 2017
Book Review:
The Girl with All the Gifts By M.R. Carey
Please sir, may I have another? That is how I felt after reading The Girl with All the Gifts. This is one of the best books that just hit me perfectly in all the right places. I laughed, I cried, where do I find the t-shirt?
The Girl with All the Gifts is one of those cases where, with respect to the synopsis, less is more. I read the synopsis and was immediately pulled in.
See my full review...
