I have decided to participate in a weekly bookish meme, called Teaser Tuesday. It is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend Nix at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules: 

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I have modified them slightly for my Teasers. It will not be two sentences from a random page but two sentences from the pages I have read so far that have struck me as most interesting, original or that I just happen to like a lot.

This week's teaser comes from a book that I read last week and really enjoyed it very much. It is a cute romantic read with tons of funny lines. It was difficult for me to pick just a couple of sentences but finally I chose two that I think represent fully the mood and feel of the whole book. Enjoy!


"He looked at the bra as though it was radioactive. there was no way he was touching it. It was one thing taking it off a woman in the heat of the moment, another to parade through a department store looking for its mate."

The Davina Code by Janet Elizabeth Henderson






If you like my teaser, you can learn more about this book by checking my review on the blog.

There is just one new release for me this week, but it is one that I am really looking forward to. It is Colleen Hoover's This Girl. This is the story of Will and Lake which we read in Slammed (I totally loved this one) but this time it is told from Will's point of view. It will be the first time for me to read the same story in a separate book told from the other person's POV. I have some concerns that being familiar might make it repetitive and boring but we will have to wait and see how it will go.

Just a quick note on the cover. I don't know what it is about it but I really don't like it. It seems too bright, colourful, overall not a good fit for the story. I loved the cover of Slammed and expected something more sophisticated.

30 April

This Girl      (Slammed 3)

Colleen Hoover

Young Adult Romance

Goodreads Blurb

When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure.

College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think.

But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts?

Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him.

To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good.

My review

In tennis: "If you lose your service without scoring a single point, you were broken at love." - Quinn Rowland

Goodreads blurb

It's always annoying when romance gets in the way of your life goals. And falling in lust with Jack Miller is definitely getting in the way of Davina's plans. Davina has a movie to make and an acting career to resurrect - okay, so it was never alive in the first place, but that's not the point. The point is: she's hitting thirty and she wants to be famous. And if that means making an indie movie with "borrowed" film equipment and shooting the movie in Jack's house without permission - then so be it. 

She's a woman on a mission and nothing is going to stop her from achieving her dream. Not even her sexy, ex-cop, landlord who is pretty focused himself. Unfortunately his goals revolve around evicting her from his house, putting her in jail and getting her into bed - and he doesn't seem to mind what happens first. 

This book was provided by the author in exchange of an honest review.


Author's links: Website / Facebook / Goodreads

Here is the latest news about Callie and Kayden. As you know after the terrible cliffhanger at the end of The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden, their story will continue in a second book - The Redemption of Callie and Kayden. The big news this week is the cover reveal of the new title, which I think is really beautiful, and the announcement of its release date - 6 Aug 2013. It seems really far away, but in the meantime do check regularly Ms Sorensen site for teasers of this book and all her upcoming titles. 

Lately, there has also been some new developments concerning her other very popular, and much loved by me, New Adult series - The Secret (Ella and Micha). The second book, The Forever of Ella and Micha, is coming out in less than a month, on 28 May 2013. You can read the Prologue on Ms Sorensen's site. 

Both titles are available for pre-order on Amazon.

Author's site / Facebook / Goodreads

I have decided to participate in a weekly bookish meme, called Teaser Tuesday. It is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules: 

There are some exciting titles coming out this week. First is Rock My Bed, the second book in the Black Falcon series. A steamy rock star romance - one of my favourites. 

On the same day comes the first book in the Perfection series by Abbi Glines, spin-off of the Too Far series. This one is telling the story of Woods who we met first in Fallen Too far and from all the teasers shared by Ms Glines so far, it looks to be a turbulent and heart-breaking love story. 

Finally, a day later, Nicole Williams will release the final book about Lucy and Jude - hopefully, with the happy end they deserve.

Goodreads Blurb

When her best friend Heather calls in the middle of the night, Becca assumes it's the usual drama. Wrong. Heather's parents have been arrested as dissidents - and Becca's mother, the dystopian regime's most infamous torturer, has already executed them for their crimes against the state.

To stop Heather from getting herself killed trying to prove her parents' innocence, Becca hunts for proof of their guilt. She doesn't expect to find evidence that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the dissidents... and about her mother.

When she risks her life to save a dissident, she learns her mother isn't the only one with secrets - and the plot she uncovers will threaten the lives of the people she loves most. For Becca, it's no longer just a choice between risking execution and ignoring the regime's crimes; she has to decide whose life to save and whose to sacrifice.

It's easy to be a hero when you can save the world, but what about when all you can do is choose how you live in it? THE TORTURER'S DAUGHTER is a story about ordinary teenage life amidst the realities of living under an oppressive regime... and the extraordinary courage it takes to do what's right in a world gone wrong.

My Review

I received an ARC of this book by the author through the Goodreads group Shut Up and Read in exchange for a review.

This book started rather slow for me. The beginning was too high school gossip and drama. It took me a while to get fully involved in the story. My main difficulty came from the story being told from 3rd person. Sometimes I needed to go back and re-read to be clear whether 'she'it was Becca or Heather. Gradually, though, I got used to the writing style of the author and started enjoying th story much more. 

Initially, I expected there to come a more detailed world building and when it did not happen I realised that this is not what is important in this story. There is not need for detailed descriptions of the world/society. Becca's thoughts and emotions are enough to present the world the characters live in. The focus in this book is on the inner turmoil and changes all the characters undergo and mostly, as the title says, the complexity of Becca being the torturer's daughter. 

I think that all the characters, main and supporting, are very complex and well developed. The author presented very convincingly the reality of a totalitarian society where everybody monitors and reports on the others, where you can be considered a dissident just because someone says so. 

I liked the complex relationships Becca has with the people around her - her mother, her best friend Heather, Jake. 

The book read like a 3-star rating for me up until the last quarter. The test Becca is put to and her ultimate decisions make the book stand out. I really liked the ending and could relate to what happened with all the characters, except for Jake. The fate the author chose for him still puzzles me and makes me sad. I see him fitting well into the story, yet the romantic in me wishes for a more positive development of this line of the plot. 

In short, I would say that this a really moving and emotional dystopian story told from an young adult point of view. Yet the issues and messages in this novel sound rather adult and contemporary (and unfortunately, too realistic) to me.

On her website the author shared that there will be a sequel to this book. I will be checking it, as well.

I have decided to participate in a weekly bookish meme, called Teaser Tuesday. It is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules: 

So, my blog is part of the Abbi Glines Birthday Bash organised by AToMR and here is my post to celebrate Ms Glines birthday. 

I discovered Ms Glines' books last summer starting with the Vincent boys Beau and Sawyer, then continued with Sadie and Jax and Marcus and whole Sea Breeze gang, finally coming to Blaire and Rush, looking eagerly forward to Woods' and Grant's stories later this year. 

I love all her characters and I get emotionally involved with their stories but my most favourite couple is Cage and Eva from While It Lasts. So, after thinking long and hard how to express my love and admiration for Ms Glines and her work and finally decided to give you a short excerpt of Cage and Eva's story.

This scene is a favourite of mine because it tells so much both about Cage and about Eva. He is a bad boy, yet a gentleman, a little bit naughty and a little bit nice. Eva is innocent and sweet and she is just beginning to explore her feelings and desires. It is a wonderful moment in their story!

"Looking for something?" Cage asked behind me.

I turned around to face him and almost swallowed my tongue when my eyes met his naked chest, I'd admired it from afar but never up close. It was better up close.

"An engaged lady shouldn't be looking at another man like she wants to take e lick." The teasing tone in his voice told me he didn't really mind my gawking at him at all. He was enjoying it.

"Who said I wanted to take a lick?" I replied, surprised at my own response. Was that flirting I had just done? I wasn't sure I'd ever flirted.

Cage ran a hand through his hair and let out a short deep laugh. "Maybe we ought to change the subject." Cage was nervous. Had my comment just made him nervous?

"You brought up the licking Cage, not me." I waited to see how he'd react this time.

"Yeah, I guess I did," he drawled and took a step toward me, Okay, so maybe I hadn't made him nervous. Guys like Cage probably didn't get nervous, "If you really want to talk about licking, I'll happily oblige."

Oh, my. Now, I was nervous. Cage reached out and took my left hand in his. The warmth from his callused palm my entire body tingle. "Only problem with talking about licking with is that it gives me ideas. I start thinking about things I shouldn't be thinking about. Things that will only torment me 'cause I'll never know just how sweet you taste. I may be a lot of things Eva, might even be a few of them names you called me but I'm not gonna touch what belongs to another man." 
I opened my mouth to say something and stopped when Cage lifted my left hand to his mouth and kissed my ring finger. Then his tongue darted out and just barely skimmed the top of my hand. He grinned wickedly.

At some point, I'd stopped breathing. When my lungs started burning I took a deep breath and Cage let my hand fall back to my side. "Sorry, I had to take a small taste." Then he winked at me and turned toward the door.

I stood silently as he walked back outside in the summer heat."

This is my way of saying Happy birthday, Abbi Glines! Thank you for all the amazing, sweet and heart-warming stories you write and share with us! 

What is a birthday party without presents? This time the presents are not just for our birthday girl but also for  all her fans. AToMR tours have organised a giveaway running 16-20 April 2013.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Abbi Glines links: Author's Website / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest 

Here is just one new book this week that I am looking forward to but it is totally worth it. I don't really like the cover but hope the story will make up for it. 

19 April

Resisting Her

Kendall Ryan

Romance

                                        

For the past couple of weeks I have been immersed in the amazing and rather scary world of the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. So far I have read the first three books and I am just starting the fourth one (they are five in total, so far). 

I have written short reviews/comments on the books I have read on Goodreads but nothing on the blog. I can assure you that this is not due to negligence. I am really passionate about this series, even slightly obsessed by it, a. For the me the separate books read like chapters of one story and I plan to review them   together in a single post. Hopefully, I will finish the series in the next couple of weeks (I keep prolonging the pleasure of it by reading other books in between) and then it is review time.

In the meantime, you can check the series on Goodreads and decide where to read them. Be warn, though, once you start them, there is no stopping before the final one! Mac's adventures with the Fae in modern-day Dublin are simply addictive. So is Jericho Barrons :)

Check Karen Marie Moning on Author's website / Facebook / Goodreads

The story has all the elements of my kind of story - romance between a bad boy rock star and proper, goody-two shoes virgin who is singer/musician herself. The book has its sweet moments and romantic gestures but overall it failed to impress me. 

I felt that Abby was presented far too innocent and sweet to be true. I also did not like how everybody was immediately enamoured with her. 

I did like Jake, though. At the beginning we see him  as a typical rockstar womaniser but when he meets Abby, he immediately changes. His emotional freakouts after they get together seem out of the blue and he recovers from them far too quickly. He barely has time to think about what he is done and he is already asking Abby to forgive him. And there is Abby who forgive and forgets far too easily, I think. This made the conflicts between them unrealistic and unconvincing. 

Enough with the criticism. There were also a lot of things in this book that I enjoyed. The romance between Jake and Abby was really tender and sweet. I liked Jake's bandmates and the interactions among them.

Even though I as not particularly impress with this novel, I still plan on reading Katie Ahsley's The Proposition and the Proposal. You can check her website for teasers, pictures and trivia on her works. Follow Katie Ashley on Pinterest if you enjoy visualizing books into pictures. 

I have decided to participate in a weekly bookish meme, called Teaser Tuesday. It is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules: 

Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance 
by Penny Reid











You can check my review of the book on the blog.

LOST AND FOUND by Nicole Williams

Expected release: May 7, 2013 

Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult

Cover Designer: Sarah Hansen from Okay Creations; 

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

There are no new releases this week but I have some exciting news to share with you. I am very happy to let you know that I have accepted in Samantha Young's Club 39. Ms Young is the author of one of my favourite books of 2012 - On Dublin Street. It will a series and the second book - Down London Road - is to be released on 7 May 2013. Make sure to read the excerpt from Chapter 1 on author's official website. It is totally worth it.

In the meantime you can enjoy Braden and Jocelyn's Christmas (free short story)  on Smexy Books. There is also an accompanying novella, telling the story of Ellie and Adam - Until Fountain Bridge - already available as a ebook.

Back to Club 39 business. It will provide the latest news on Ms Young books and I will be more than happy to share them with you. So, follow me on Bloglovin or Facebook to keep up to date with all the fun. 

Title: Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance
Author: Penny Reid
Date of publication: 13 March 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
More reviews: Goodreads

My rating: 4 stars

This is a full-length, 110k word novel and is the first book in the Knitting in the City series.

I came across after somebody recommended it in one of the topics in the Kristen Ashley fan group on Goodreads. It was described as funny romance and I was immediately interested because that is exactly the type of romance I like - sweet and funny, not just hot sex. I am really happy to say that the book did not disappointed me in the least, actually it turned out to be much better than I expected initially. 

Janie is this freakish, geekish girl who says the most award things, yet she is super smart and her inner monologues and interactions with actual people come across as just hilarious. I loved her character even though at the beginning the presentation of her thoughts seemed as too much, gradually as the story progresses you just accept this as her modus operandi. She overthinks things, this is her natural way to make sense of the world around her. She is socially inadequate, yet her sincerity makes the people in her life really care about her (her family excluded).

I can really relate to Janie's infatuation with Quinn, (Sir. McHotpants, how cool is that?). I enjoyed everything about their relationship - how it started, progressed and lead to something good for both of them. She made him want to be a better person and his acceptance of her the way she is made her engage in life rather than just observe from a distance.

The secondary characters in the story were also great. The book had it all - trusted and loyal friends, a slightly annoying ex-boyfriend, a sympathetic gay colleague and a jealous bitch colleague, a crazy family, some dangerous thugs. 

The story is told entirely from the point of view of Janie (except the Epilogue, but I will come to it later) and we are given an in-depth insight into her character. Against this I feel that Quinn is a much weaker character. We learn that he has done things that he regrets and he sees himself as a bad guy, yet the glimpses of his past and present (independent of Janie's opinion of him) were not enough for me. I kept waiting to learn more about him. Still, that does not mean, I did not love him, I really did.

The weakest element in the story for me was the Epilogue. It is told from Quinn's point of view but for me it was not convincing. His voice was too much like Janie's, it did not fit his alpha male nature we see in the rest of the novel. At the same time the final scene in the luxury fixtures store, though fitting to the Janie's freakishness, did not provide the ending her love story deserves. Even though it is cliché, I feel the actual proposal would have been a better choice. Just saying!

There are also some plot elements that did not make much sense for me (Jon being responsible for Janie being fired and Jem stripping for Quinn, biting him and burning him with a cigarette, for example). 

These minor weaknesses prevent me form giving the book five glowing stars, still I really enjoyed reading it
and I hope that it will be just the first story in the Knitting in the City series.

Personal note 1: I know how to knit and enjoy doing it occasionally :) 

Personal note 2: There is a reference to Bulgarians in this book. Unfortunately for me, it is quite a negative one, still I am mentioning it since it is so rare to come across one. 

As most of you already know Google Reader will be going out of business as of 1 July 2013, so we need a new way to follow our favourite blogs and to allow our readers to follow us. Since I started my blog after the announcement that the Google Reader will not be available any more, since currently I am not following that many blogs, I decided to wait some time and see which of the new solutions will serve me best. 

Increasingly, I have come to notice that my friends with book blogs show a preference for Bloglovin in the place of GFC. This week I decided it is time to give it a try. 

It has a nice interface and it is very user-friendly. I managed to transfer all the blogs that I am currently following into it without any problems. The claiming of my blog was also done almost effortlessly on my part. Even for someone like me, who is not particularly technically savvy, it was easy to install the Follow me button on my blog. 

In short, I can say that I quite like Bloglovin so far. I hope it will work for you too. 

You can follow me by clicking on Bloglovin icon in the left column of the blog. 

I have decided to participate in a weekly bookish meme, called Teaser Tuesday. It is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I learned about it from my friend at Unraveling Words. Here are the rules: 

So, here is my Teaser this week: 

"Barrons was powerful, broodingly good-looking, insanely wealthy, frighteningly intelligent, and had exquisite taste, not to mention a had body that emitted some kind of low-level charge. Bottom line: He was the stuff of heroes.

An psychotic killers."

Bloodfever (Book 3 of the Fever series) 

Karen Marie Moning

Here are the new releases I am looking forward to this week. I can't honestly say which one I am most excited about.

I really liked Pushing the Limits, so I expect the same to happen with Crossing the Line, even though it is just a novella. 

Krsiten Ashley is one of my most favoutire authors and I have already read and enjoyed many of her novels. The Motorcycle Man is a particular favourite of mine and since the Choas series is a sort of spin-off of it an also considering what a huge fan I am of the TV series Sons of Anarchy, it is safe to say that I have some very high expectations of Own the Wind. Also, keep in mind that the excerpt of the book (Prologue and Chapter 1) published on KA's site already has me heart-broken and addicted to Shy and Tabby's story. 

Last, but not least, comes the Julie James's latest FBI/US Attorney novel, Love Irresistibly. I quite enjoyed her previous novels in the series, so this one should be no different. Ms James writes some pretty witty dialogue, strong-willed characters (both the heroes and heroines) and steamy hot scenes. So, in short I am looking forward to enjoying this novel a lot.